Emma Stevens aka Linda Pevac is the author of two memoirs, The Gathering Place and A Fire is Coming. Her adoption journey began with being relinquished as an infant and adopted by a mom and dad, with an adoptive brother who had also been adopted two and a half years prior. It’s only in hindsight that Emma has been able to see how her entire life has been colored and altered by being an adoptee. In her first memoir, The Gathering Place, she shares of a magical place she’s created where healing, comfort, and repair take place for the younger parts of herself who never felt safe, seen, heard, or understood. This past March, Emma was named as an Independent Author Award winner in Tucson’s 2024 Festival of Books. Her second book, A Fire is Coming, was just named as a Finalist in the 18th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards.

About Emma
Emma Stevens aka Linda Pevac is a U.S. domestic adoptee and has survived layers of trauma that have put her on multiple journeys. She developed the inner strength and courage to surmount the many struggles she faced. Her traumas were born from first being relinquished and then becoming an adoptee who struggled with being forced to wear an impossible mask of playing the part of the “good adopted child.”

Her childhood upbringing in an authoritative, cult-like family, predisposed Emma to several more struggles. One of them was falling prey to an exploitative therapist where she unknowingly entered a cultic, one-on-one relationship with her psychologist. Someone who was to help, support, and provide healing – instead, held Emma captive in a psychological nightmare.

Because of these past traumas, Emma desires to be part of the movement that is dedicated to help bring forth change to the way our world views the needs and support of adopted individuals, as well as bring awareness of the exploitation that can occur by the hands of counselors, therapists, and other healthcare professionals. By sharing her experience of being exploited by her abusive psychologist/social worker, Emma feels strongly to expose and bring light to what an unethical, boundaryless, professional therapy situation may look like.

Emma has an undergraduate degree in journalism and has completed Master’s level course work in psychology, specializing in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling. She has two adult children and two cat children who she adores.