September 19 Workshop on Post-Abortion Therapy Covers Approaches That Support Both the Social Worker and Their Clients

The most important way to support someone post-abortion is “to center on the person in front of you, not to center on ideology,” according to Rachel Dyer, PhD, instructor of NASW Virginia and Metro DC’s joint September 19 course, “Understanding and Supporting Clients After Abortions.” “… We're reflecting on your own nuanced and varying values around abortion, so not just sticking with the ‘Yeah, I support abortion. That's great,’ because you might not [be supportive] in all cases” such as after 15 weeks of pregnancy or some other point of discomfort….  [You need to] really contend with those things, so that you can center on the person in front of you.”

Dyer notes that a lot of providing post-abortion support involves skills social workers and therapists are trained to do anyway, but “it's harder to access that space of empathy and connectedness when it comes to abortion, because there's so much political gunk.”

In addition to identifying personal abortion-related values and how they might impact clinical work, the 3-CE course from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. ET covers 

• myths and facts about the relationships among abortions, mental health, and emotions; 

• a framework to help social workers better understand clients’ experiences; 

• evidence about the relationship between abortions and emotions; 

• legal and ethical considerations; and 

• a possible after-abortion resource for clients.

Dyer also is sharing a downloadable resource guide to let attendees “hang on to the values reflection exercise” that she will conduct at the workshop. “My approach to these trainings is to be as responsive as possible” and to welcome questions that may even lead to some deviation in the discussion, she adds. 

“I hope [course participants come away with] a clear framework in mind for how to understand the relationship between abortions and how people feel after them, getting away from the gunk that we get from politicians and from the stigma that we are all inundated with in American culture currently,” she says. “So that's one thing--just getting more and correct information. 

“I also hope people have the opportunity to self-reflect. I always include values reflection exercises in my training, so [participants] are not just reflecting on the information and applying it outwardly, but are also using it to understand ‘what are my biases,’ ‘what are my reactions, and how might this affect my clinical work’ or ‘how I am supporting the people that I work with if they're not doing clinical work?’ … Additionally, [it’s] also being able to think, ‘How can I take the skills I already have and apply them to supporting a person who has had an abortion?’ Really trying to connect all of the dots among self-reflection, knowledge, and skills.”

Registration ends September 17, and cost is $60, NASW members; $78, nonmembers.