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 Post Abortion Seminar 
UPCOMING SEMINARS - Two day post abortion seminars
“I struggled alone with my pain. I was hounded by guilt,
and couldn’t tell anyone. Who would understand? Who would not judge me?”
“I had not realised how much the abortion had affected me and what it was doing
to my life or how it had impacted my relationships. Coming for counseling was
hard, but I kept coming because it helped me to uncover what happened and make
some sense of it and why I was feeling the way I was and acted the way I did.”
“My relationship with my partner ended a few years after the abortion. I felt
hopeless and the grief of losing my baby and losing the man in my life was
huge. Abortion grief is not like other griefs. It is harder to talk about
because I did it. No matter what I tell myself in my head my heart aches for my
baby”
Responding to the needs of people affected
by abortion/termination is a sensitive matter and requires
understanding of many factors to assist one to engage well and support
a person to share their story.
Post Abortion
Seminars target professionals – counsellors,
psychotherapists and social workers, doctors, nurses, midwives… and
others in helping caring roles in the community and churches, pastors,
and pastoral care people…. and anyone with an interest in the subject.
Participants are invited to take from the seminar what is useful in their practice and roles.
At the end of the seminar participants will
- identify contexts in which abortion decisions occur and common reasons for abortion
-
identify possible impacts of an abortion experience – physical, psychological and spiritual, relationships
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identify risk factors for negative abortion reactions
-
identify role and impacts for men
-
identify stages of foetal development
-
have a step by step framework to use as a guide through a process towards healing / recovery
A Typical Seminar covers the following
- CONTEXTUALISATION OF ABORTION
- Stats, views / beliefs
- Influences in abortion decision-making
- Reasons for abortion
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SPECTRUM of BELIEF
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ABORTION AFTERMATH
- Possible physical complications
- Women at risk & risk factors for negative abortion reactions
- Psychological effects including depression, PTSD and associated problems
- Grief and abortion
- Spiritual effects and considerations - guilt and shame
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THEMES & CONFLICTS
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MEN & ABORTION
CHRISTCHURCH SEMINAR
When: Thursday 1 and Friday 2nd March 2018
Time: 9.30 to 4 pm each day
Where: The Arahura Centre, 406 Barrington Street, Christchurch
For more details email carolina@postabortionpaths.org.nz
NORTH ISLAND SEMINAR
As yet undetermined for 2018
If you are interested in offering this seminar to your local
counsellors, doctors, nurses, social workers, pastors and community
workers please contact us for more information at
For more information or to book a seminar
Phone or email admin@postabortionpaths.org.nz
Reflections on Facilitating Seminars
by Carolina Gnad
Facilitating post abortion seminars over the years has been interesting
and at times challenging. In the seminars I endeavour to create a safe
forum for exploration around pregnancy, abortion and termination
related issues in New Zealand, sharing around the possible short or
long term impacts of abortion/termination using a holistic approach,
and offering and discussing a process for journeying with someone
around healing. The seminars also provide opportunities for individuals
to share more personally from their personal and professional
experiences.
It is important for those attending to come to understand themselves in
relation to the issues and to know their “position” before they can
hope to assist others who may be affected. This means that these
seminars are not merely academic in nature - they are interactive with
some self reflective exercises and group processes. The difficulty is
having a group of diverse people come together exploring in and around
what is traditionally a very sensitive, contentious and divided subject.
Invariably the two day seminars are very intense - there is much
material to cover, and it can stir up strong emotions as what people
share can trigger reactions amongst participants. The group of
participants is like a mix or melting pot of society with a range of
views and experiences. Holding the differences and managing the
tensions in the room is not always easy. Generally there is a healthy
professional acceptance of differences amongst participants as they
grapple with what is presented or deal with what emerges from the
various dialogues. Sometimes however personal views and feelings spill
over, and it takes much effort and energy to keep things on track so
that most can benefit from the learnings and experience of the seminar.
The invitation in the seminar is to broaden our perspectives, to become
more self aware in the process, to expand our knowledge and gain new
insights around the issues that surround abortion and termination for
the individuals and health professionals involved. I find that there is
multi layered challenges for participants often around balancing
personal experiences and responses in relation to professional
responsibilities and sometimes workplace culture and constraints.
I am always challenged in myself too, with my own personal beliefs, and
what I have come to see and understand through my work with clients
post termination. Developing the seminar is an ongoing process as I too
learn more and grow in my awareness and knowledge. I cannot always meet
everyone’s needs or expectations and that is hard, however for the most
part, if people go away with some new insights, something to add to
their practice toolkit, and develop a willingness to engage more
constructively and fruitfully around the issues then for me it is
worthwhile.
Often participants will feed back how grateful they are to have
somewhere to talk around pregnancy and abortion related issues without
needing to get into wild debates over the issues. Also pastoral and
health or counselling professionals find the 10 Step Programme really
useful for post abortion recovery but also for use with other losses
and trauma issues.
Some participants comments from the Christchurch, Napier and Auckland Seminars this year:
Very informative. …. It was healing for myself
Clear coherent information. Very accepting and gentle style. Well paced, engaging.
Very helpful and relevant. Comfortable and safe to talk about personal stuff. Good handouts.
Very full and excellent content. Non abrasive style, easy to understand.
A lot of information to absorb. Comprehensive handouts and excellent
content. The understanding of all the factors involved for women around
abortion was very interesting and the 10 Steps to working with post
abortion loss and trauma was very helpful. Also the opportunity for
networking professionally was good. The whole seminar was a definite
plus for professional development. I was definitely challenged in my
thinking around abortion issues. Would have liked a bit more info on
helping men involved in abortion.
I love Carolina’s down to earth style and gentle approach, though very
good in answering difficult questions and bringing people back on track
if things get out of hand. At times difficult, but that is due to my
own abortion experience and journey. It would be good to do a follow up
on the group in about six months. Would definitely recommend seminar to
others.
A remarkably safe way of presenting the issue. What was most
interesting was seeing the apparent and real voicelessness in the
abortion process.
I think Carolina was a really thoughtful, open presenter, very
inclusive. What was helpful was Carolina’s take on occupying a
professional stance of the middle-ground on the continuum. The ten step
model – I will use this. And interesting was the holistic consideration
of who else is affected: fathers, families, other children etc. I liked
it that it was challenging and I got a lot out of it.
I have gained deeper insights around the decision-making at the time of
abortion which is the area that I am involved in. Many women I see have
also had previous TOPs and I feel better able to understand some the
the likely unresolved issues that they may have experienced since their
previous TOPs....
Personally I appreciated hearing the different positions that people
held as they were negotiating their own values and beliefs around
abortion. There were moments that I even felt angry as I listened to
some strong judgemental remarks, but this reminded me that I had to
work through my own values and beliefs to find a safe position to enter
into working with women in a clinical practice role. This is a
difficult topic for people to grapple with and Carolina managed this so
respectfully, a wonderful teacher.
I would recommend this seminar to others, and I would love to see this
training or an adaptation of this to be accredited by the ASC (Abortion
Supervisory Committee) as it was clear to me from the last APGANZ
Conference that social workers and counsellors working frontline were
expressing a great lack of support around training in this area.
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