Because I'm Adopted

By Maria Cronyn

Because I'm Adopted explores adoption as a lifelong identity rather than a childhood event. Written by adoptee and physician Dr. Maria Cronyn, ND, this book gives voice to an internal experience shared by many adopted people but rarely named or understood.

Growing up without genetic mirrors or biological continuity, adoptees often learn to adapt themselves to their environment in order to belong. Identity becomes something assembled rather than inherited. Many develop a heightened ability to read others, shift roles, and function outwardly while carrying an unspoken inner world shaped by early separation.

Drawing from lived experience, trauma science, neuroscience, and integrative medicine, Dr. Cronyn examines how adoption influences attachment, emotional regulation, dissociation, and identity development across the lifespan. She challenges common myths surrounding adoption, including the idea that love alone resolves early loss or that separation leaves no lasting imprint.

Interwoven with this framework is the author's own journey into naturopathic and homeopathic medicine, becoming a physician as a way of healing herself while helping others heal also. The book offers adoptees validation and language, families greater understanding, and clinicians an adoption-literate lens.

Shapeshifter is an honest, grounded examination of what it means to live between identities - and to consciously reclaim the self.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GKZCDBM5
• ISBN13: 9798233439780
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Dr Maria Cronyn
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"