ASP-010
Course Introduction
This is a mandatory pre-requisite for any of the distance education courses
This introductory course provides a comprehensive overview of issues related to abuse against women and children with information specifically related to the childbearing year. Women survivors can face serious mental and physical health consequences as a result of their abuse. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the magnitude of the issue and the unique stressors that arise in the childbearing year for women who have survived childhood abuse, childhood sexual abuse, sexual violence or woman abuse. Using research publications from 2000-07 as supplementary resources, relevant statistical and theoretical perspectives on violence against women and children are presented, including women with multiple barriers such as disability, sexual orientation, minority status. Links are established between childhood sexual abuse, re-victimization and woman abuse.
Fee: $25.00
ASP-020
Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Childbearing Year
Women who have experienced abuse as children, particularly sexual abuse, may experience profound challenges in the childbearing year. This course addresses these challenges, including the impact of sexual abuse on the child victim and how women who have experienced abuse as children may cope with their traumatic pasts during pregnancy, labour and birth and the early postpartum period. The course explores various complex psychological adaptations the child victim may use to cope with, accommodate and survive abuse (internalized blame, dissociation, denial, repression). Emphasis is placed on fostering an understanding of how these adaptive mechanisms acquired as a child are potentially problematic for the female adult survivor in the childbearing years. Principles of Harm Reduction are introduced.
Fee: $100.00
ASP-030
Woman Abuse and the Childbearing Year
In most cases, abuse during pregnancy is a continuation of abuse that began before the woman became pregnant. On-going abuse can make it impossible for a woman to embrace pregnancy as a time of joy. When a woman is in an abusive relationship it can be very difficult for her to get the support she needs from her partner to make her birth experience a positive one. The partner may not respect or allow her a choice of caregiver (doctor or midwife) or the support people she may wish to have with her during the birth. An abusive partner may undermine her choices around pain management by either forbidding it or telling her she is "weak" for getting it. However, for a small number of women who are abused, being pregnant serves to decrease or temporarily stop the abuse from occurring. Consequently, these women may attempt to stay pregnant to stop the abuse. For the majority of these women, the abuse returns after the birth of the baby. This course examines some of these very complex dynamics related to woman abuse and the childbearing year.
Fee: $75.00
ASP-040
Asking About Abuse: Creating Safe Spaces for Women
"A woman may hear for the first time from you that woman abuse is unjust and that she has done nothing to deserve it. Every action that we take as individuals is part of the solution towards ending violence against women." (Women's Mental Health & Addictions, Action & Research Coalition, London ON)
Research has shown that women who have experienced abuse felt it important that caregivers ask specifically about abuse issues during routine prenatal appointments. Women felt that by using the language of abuse (and not dancing around it), caregivers demonstrated a commitment to recognizing the impacts abuse can have on their lives. However there is controversy surrounding the various screening methods used to ask about abuse and whether or not there are negative impacts on women who choose to disclose their abuse to a care provider. This course will examine the debate surrounding some of the commonly used screening practices, including the Routine Universal Screening Protocol (RUCS). Questions of "how can I ask about abuse?" and "what do I say if she says yes?" will be thoroughly explored. Confidentiality and duty to report legislation are discussed.
Fee: $100.00
ASP-050
Safety and Risk Factors in the Childbearing Year
Women who are being abused are most often at risk during their attempts to leave an abusive relationship or shortly after their relationships have ended. There are, however, other important risk factors that care providers should be aware of when working with abuse survivors. Research has indicated that pregnancy is a high risk time for women living with abuse.
Working with survivors of abuse can be dangerous for care-providers as well. In this course we examine strategies for increasing the care providers' emotional and physical safety while working with survivors of abuse and their families. The course will explore safety planning for women whether they are remaining in the abusive relationship or are attempting to leave the relationship and what to consider once the relationship has ended. Emphasis is placed on compassionate, client centered options that are respectful of each individual woman's expressed needs.
Fee: $50.00
ASP-060
Postpartum and the Survivor of Abuse
It is not uncommon for a woman to remember or recall a history of abuse for the first time during the postpartum period. It may be the sound of her baby's cries or the neediness of her baby that triggers her own memory of helplessness or violation. Sometimes women are able to keep their feelings repressed during pregnancy, only to have them surface when faced with the challenges of caring for a newborn. Postpartum is a challenging time in the lives of most new mothers and families as they learn to integrate their newborn into the family dynamic. However, for women who have experienced abuse, the postpartum period can be an especially challenging time emotionally and physically. Mothers who have experienced abuse are more at risk for a host of postpartum complications including postpartum depression. Without appropriate support and guidance, women who have experienced abuse may have a very difficult time forming healthy attachment with their babies. In this course, common postpartum adjustment issues are presented including the physical and emotional recovery process, attachment disorders, newborn care concerns as well as helpful support strategies in the postpartum period. Emphasis is placed on de-briefing the birth experience postpartum with the woman survivor.
Fee: $100.00
ASP-070
Counseling Tools and Strategies
Many professionals who work with women in the childbearing year have expressed a keen interest in learning basic counseling tools for working with women survivors in their care. In this course various basic counseling strategies are introduced for providing support to women survivors during the childbearing year.
Core topics:
- What are triggers and what can we do with them?
- Birth plan as an empowerment and communication tool
- Simple grounding tools
- Creating a "safe place"
Fee: $100.00
ASP-080
Caring for the Caregiver
We strongly suggest this course for professionals who have not had similar training.
Vicarious Traumatization is a term coined by Pearlman and Saakvitne (1995) to describe "those permanently transformative, inevitable changes that result from doing therapeutic work with trauma victims". This course will look at the concept of vicarious trauma in the lives of professionals working with women survivors. Risk factors and resiliency factors will be presented including a discussion on how the professional's own abuse history may impact how they interact with survivors in their care.
Fee: $50.00