Description
Live Broadcast Date(s)*: Monday, March 25, 2024
Live Broadcast Time(s)*: 10:00 am – 5:15 pm ET
*Can’t attend live? This webinar will be recorded and archived. All registrants receive unlimited access to the recording for 365 days.
Description
The reproductive years, spanning from adolescence to the early 40s (and even beyond for cisgender men), hold the potential for joy in family growth. However, this period is often marred by shame and hidden hopelessness due to reproductive trauma—experienced by 1 in 6 couples facing infertility, 1 in 4 enduring pregnancy loss, and 1 in 8 grappling with perinatal mood or anxiety disorders.
This workshop sheds light on the often-overlooked narrative of reproductive trauma, crucial for mental health professionals. With up to half of all reproductive-aged cisgender women affected by maternal mental health issues, this course addresses the gaps in clinician training.
Participants will explore the ethical dilemmas surrounding reproductive trauma and maternal mental health complications and learn how to integrate this knowledge into their practice.
Combining lecture, case illustrations, and discussion, this course introduces Dr. Janet Jaffe’s concept of the “reproductive narrative” that shapes how a person envisions themselves as a parent. It addresses familial expectations around parenting and mothering, which can be impacted by a reproductive trauma, such as infertility or pregnancy loss.
Thie course also explores the framework of grief and loss in the context of reproductive trauma, acknowledging the nuanced losses that may be imperceptible to others. For example, an early miscarriage might be explained away by a well-meaning individual as “at least you can get pregnant.” But this devalues the meaning of the event to the person that experienced it.
Using Joann Paley Galst and Judith Horowitz’s ethical framework from “Ethical Dilemmas in Fertility Counseling,” this course equips mental health professionals to navigate the complexities of reproductive psychology.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the multiple ways to build a family using both genetic and non-genetic materials, as a way to help inform clients who might not be able to create their family without interventions.
- Describe the nuances to each type of pregnancy loss experience.
- Identify the unique roles that culture can play in discerning reproductive choices and how this can potentially be problematic when people are seeking out ART.
- Utilize different treatment modalities to process and assist in healing from birth trauma.
- Analyze when medication might be appropriate as an adjunct to therapy and how to talk to a pregnant or nursing person about it.
- Assess ethical situations that arise in this work and utilize a construct for managing them.
Agenda
| Time | Topics Covered |
| 10:00-11:30 am | Introduction/overview, including explanation of the reproductive story and normative human reproduction. Discussion of when reproduction doesn’t go as planned (infertility). |
| 11:30-11:45 am | Break |
| 11:45 am-1:15 pm | Pregnancy Loss: types of losses, responses to losses, cultural considerations to loss. Plenary Group Discussion: Orienting to the Work |
| 1:15-2:00 pm | Lunch |
| 2:00-3:30 pm | Birth trauma and the role of culture. |
| 3:30-3:45 pm | Break |
| 3:45-5:15 pm | Ethics of the reproductive psychology field. Postpartum mental health issues. |
CE Information
This training offers 6 hours of direct contact (not counting breaks or lunch). It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards/regulatory body to verify CE requirements for their license to practice.
Attendees of the live broadcast will receive instructions on how to obtain their Certificate of Participation after the course is finished.
Attendees of the on-demand recorded version will need to complete a Post-Webinar Quiz with a pass of at least 80% in order to verify attendance and then receive their Certificate of Participation. On-demand attendees will receive instructions on how to obtain their Certificate of Participation once they have successfully passed the Post-Webinar Quiz at the completion of the webinar.
The Certificate of Participation includes:
- Name of participant.
- Title of training.
- Name of presenter plus their credentials.
- Number of hours of training.
- Date of training.
- Confirmation that showed 100% attendance at the live broadcast or passed a quiz with at least an 80% grade to verify attendance of the on-demand recording.
Get details about CE credits for Canadian and non-US international participants.
Get details about CE credits for US participants.
Please check with your regulatory body/organization to ensure that this certificate is sufficient proof for you to claim CE credits.
Who Should Attend?
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Clinical and Counselling Psychologists
- Psychiatric Social Workers
- Pastoral Counsellors
- Psychotherapists
- Psychiatrists
- Physicians
- Nurse Practitioners
- Occupational Therapists
- Counsellors
- Graduate Students in accredited programs in the above fields
- Case Managers
- Licensed Professional Counsellors
- All other professionals who would like to develop, update or expand their skills and knowledge in mental health practices
