Spiritual Support for Reproductive Experiences – 6-Week Online Course

For two decades, All-Options has provided trainings on open-hearted, nonjudgmental counseling for pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption. Our Faith Aloud spiritual care line has trained volunteers and provided spiritual support for hundreds of callers over the last decade. Drawing on our robust counseling expertise, we are excited to announce a new round of training: Spiritual Support & Counseling for Reproductive Experiences!

This training is designed for people with some level of education and/or experience in providing spiritual care. Please register only if you are already familiar with what it means to provide spiritual support in a vocational setting, which includes but is not limited to chaplaincy, parish/congregational ministry, and faith-based non-profit settings.

Want to attend the training, but need a little help talking to your employer? Use this Convince Your Employer template to make the case about how this training adds value to your role and organization.

What will you do in this training:

• Explore your values and biases at the intersections of pregnancy experiences and spiritual care, and discuss how these show up in the work of providing spiritual support.
• Contextualize reproductive decisions and experiences within themes of religion, faith, and spirituality, and within the reproductive justice framework.
• Bring a reproductive justice lens into your spiritual care work, building familiarity with pregnancy and pregnancy loss, parenting, abortion, and adoption.
• Practice core spiritual counseling skills central to All-Options’ counseling approach.
• Increase your knowledge of resources at the intersections of faith and reproductive care/rights/justice.
• Discuss, collaborate, and learn from and with others doing spiritual support work.
• Create a multifaith space where folks of many different spiritual and religious backgrounds feel able to bring their full selves forward.
• Explore and practice spiritual counseling that equips people of any faith background to support folks across their experiences of faith and spirituality.

What else you should know about this training:

• While we aim to create a multifaith space, we will discuss Christianity and its implications on providing spiritual care and contextualizing spiritual harm. We will not explore specific or in-depth scripture, traditions, or tools for individual faith traditions.
• This is not a full pregnancy options counseling training. We will provide a basic overview of parenting, abortion, and adoption, but will not discuss options counseling or individual options in-depth. If you are seeking training about pregnancy options counseling, please sign up for one of our Pregnancy Options Workshop courses.
• We will not frame abortion as an immoral choice or facilitate any debate about the morality of abortion. Additionally, All-Options does not believe that all people who have had or are considering abortions need spiritual counseling. Our approach is person-centered and holistic, recognizing the full complexities of people’s lives and honoring their inner wisdom. We believe every person deserves to be supported in all their pregnancy options and decisions, without judgment or shame.
• Each week, we’ll hold an interactive, 2-hour web-based class, with content developed by All-Options.
• Sessions are not recorded and content builds from week to week, so participants should plan to attend all sessions. It is okay to register on someone else's behalf, but the registered individual should plan to attend all 6 sessions. If for any reason a participant must miss a session, we kindly ask that they not send someone in their place for missed sessions -- having new people unexpectedly join can be disruptive to the learning environment.
• This is not a webinar! Our trainings have the most impact when people come ready to participate and engage with the material, activities, and each other. All-Options will share information both verbally and visually, make time for both small and large group discussions, and give participants the opportunity to reflect on and practice skills.
• This training is available to people around the world, but it's important to note that our facilitation and training materials are in English, and our work is grounded in the sociopolitical context of the United States.
• You will receive a course workbook to assist you in your journey through the training.

Course Sessions:

Please note all times listed are Pacific Time.

1. Wednesday, April 23, 11:00am-1:00pm PT: Welcome, Introductions, Overview and History of Spiritual Care
2. Wednesday, April 30, 11:00am-1:00pm PT: Spiritual Values Clarification
3. Wednesday, May 7, 11:00am-1:00pm PT: Contextualizing Pregnancy Decisions and Experiences
4. Wednesday, May 14, 11:00am-1:00pm PT: Deepening our Understanding of Spiritual Care for Reproductive Experiences
5. Wednesday, May 21 ,11:00am-1:00pm PT: Spiritual Trauma, Oppression, and Exploring Sources of Spiritual Wisdom
6. Wednesday, May 28, 11:00am-1:00pm PT: Role Plays, Resources, and Wrap-Up

Registration Cost:

• Individuals with no organizational affiliation - $300 early bird / $450 standard
• Organizations with budget of less than $1 million - $300 early bird / $450 standard
• Organizations with budget of $1-$5 million - $500 early bird / $650 standard
• Organizations with budget of more than $5 million - $750 early bird / $900 standard

Registration is non-refundable, however, refund requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be issued up to a week before the training begins. Please reach out to the National Trainings Manager if you have any questions: [email protected].

Join us for our 6-week online course, Spiritual Support & Counseling for Reproductive Experiences! Or, if you want to bring this training to your group or organization, please reach out to [email protected]. We are currently fielding requests for custom trainings in 2025!

Host or Publisher All-Options