Healing is Possible
Getting Counsel
*The very best way to work through your own post-abortion experience is by joining a post-abortion support group. One on one counseling is also available but a support group is highly recommended.
The Tasks of Healing
The tasks of healing for the damaged emotions following an abortion include dealing with the guilt, working through the anger, allowing yourself to grieve for the loss of your baby, and finally, learning to live with the ongoing memories and feelings. Getting help may seem impossible for you because of the shame and guilt but remember that you have experienced a great loss. Saying I need help is a big step and takes courage and strength. You are not alone!
The Embraced program uses a study called “Forgiven and Set Free” written by: Linda Cochrane. This study is used in a one-on-one setting or more preferably a group setting. This study is foundationally based in scripture and is specifically designed to minister to women wounded by abortion. Embraced address both the emotional and spiritual aspects of an abortion choice and provides a healing process in the light of God’s love and forgiveness. The process is fourteen weeks long, meeting once a week.
Embraced provides a safe and confidential environment where you will have the opportunity to:
- Speak openly with others who had had an abortion(s)
- Deal with suppressed feelings with others who understand
- Learn how abortion affects you today
- Look at the experience with the comfort of God’s Word
- Accept God’s forgiveness and forgive yourself
- Grieve your loss
The Embraced leaders who facilitate groups are volunteers trained specifically in post abortion counseling and education. We are not professional counselors. We care and we are here to help you.
If you are suffering from the emotional affects of an abortion choice there is help and support available for you. How you feel after an abortion should not be a 'political' or 'religious' issue. Reach out and get the help you need.
Testimony:
The Embraced program gave me my life back. After my abortion, I knew immediately that I was forever changed and that something was very different about me. I began to think and live in a way that was unusual for me, becoming extremely fearful and feeling unsafe. I was no longer spontaneous. I did not even trust myself to make good decisions, I questioned everything. I lived with a sense of uneasiness and uncertainty. The guilt and shame of my abortion choice controlled my life so much so that I made vows to myself that ultimately were self destructive and caused me to live out a life that was not healthy or productive. I withheld from myself the ability to be truly happy therefore, sabotaging myself. I was good at making things look good on the outside, but on the inside I was angry and very depressed often physically sick unable to function in my normal daily activities. I knew that beyond all of my reasons for the abortion I had ended the life of my child. I needed help, but I did not know help was possible for me. Until one day when I met a woman who began to share about the life of a post abortive woman. I was shocked and scared at the same time. For the first time I realized that I was not alone but scared beyond belief for fear that someone might see my reaction and that my emotions would reveal the truth about my own abortion experience. There in front of me was a very important moment in my life, I could continue to live a life with a secret I could not share or I could choose to reach out for help by doing the very thing I swore I would never do, openly reveal my own abortion experience. I chose to reach out for help because for the first time in years I felt hopeful. Through my journey of healing I was truly set free. The love and acceptance I received from the women in my group broke off the chains of condemnation I had lived under for many years. I was free to be happy again and begin to live a healthy and productive life. A true revelation: my life was forever changed; but, now I can live healed and forgiven. Where there was hopelessness there is now hope overflowing.
Monique