Drawing on the expertise of our All-Options Talkline and our Faith Aloud Spiritual Care Line, we are excited to offer this online training for people who provide spiritual support for reproductive experiences in their current faith-based settings. Although All-Options is a secular organization, we recognize that spirituality, faith, and religion can be an important part of pregnancy decisions and experiences for many people.
Registration is now open for our Spring 2025 training!
6-Week Facilitated Spiritual Support & Counseling Training
Our public 6-week course is facilitated by All-Options staff and includes an accompanying workbook to guide you through the course. Each week, All-Options will host an interactive 2-hour virtual session, and each session will build on the previous one. You will join a cohort of people in various geographic locations, primarily in the United States, to expand your counseling skills and your network. Join us from the comfort of your own computer to learn more about offering nondirective, nonjudgmental spiritual support to people throughout their reproductive journeys!
Our next public Spiritual Support & Counseling for Pregnancy Experiences training will take place Wednesdays, April 23 – May 28, 2025, 11:00am-1:00pm pacific time. Register on Eventbrite now! Please reach out to Karlie Thomas, National Trainings Manager, at karlie@all-options.org if you have any questions.
Pricing is tiered from $450 to $900 based on organizational affiliation and budget.
Registration is non-refundable, however, refund requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please reach out to the National Trainings Manager if you have any questions: Karlie@all-options.org.
This training is for anyone who:
- Already has familiarity and practice with basic concepts of providing spiritual care
- Is looking to increase their skills in counseling and providing nonjudgmental, compassionate support for reproductive experiences
- Would like to understand more about pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption, and the intersections of these experiences with faith and spirituality
- Believes that person-centered spiritual counseling can be an effective tool for offering support to people with spiritual or religious identities, influences, or life experiences
- Wants to learn more about the influence of Christo-centric religious ideology on the reproductive decision-making and the reproductive care landscape in the United States
What we’ll do in this training:
- Explore your values and biases at the intersections of pregnancy experiences and spiritual care; 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 we won’t do in this training:
- 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.
- While we aim to create a multifaith space, we will discuss Christianity and its implications for 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.
Though we do not require a pre-requisite or application for this training, please register only if you are already familiar with what it means to provide spiritual support in a vocational setting. This training is geared towards people who are already involved in spiritual support work in some way, 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.
Customized Spiritual Support & Counseling Trainings
Interested in the Spiritual Support & Counseling training, but looking for a format that’s tailored to your organization or group? We can host a custom training for you to explore the topics most present and pressing for your communities. We’ve customized trainings for clinics and healthcare systems, religious and faith organizations, doula groups, abortion funds, social workers, legal advocates, and others who’ve wanted to strengthen their ability to offer nonjudgmental support and counseling. We will work with you to tailor the content and split up the time of the training, depending on what works best for your team.
We are now accepting requests for trainings in 2025. To learn more or schedule a training, please reach out to Karlie Thomas, National Trainings Manager, at karlie@all-options.org.
Note: All-Options does not directly provide Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) of any kind. However, many chaplaincy and denominational institutions do not require the CEU program to qualify for a particular CE credit by itself. All-Options may be able to provide language about the program, as well as providing the attendee with a general certificate of completion if requested.