Counselling skills in unintended pregnancy

Hosted in partnership with Adrienne Hannah

This four-day course is suitable for any professional – youth worker, nurse, doctor, support worker – who works with women at risk of unplanned pregnancies.

Participants will review and enhance their basic counselling skills – active listening, open questions, identifying and reflecting feelings, paraphrasing and summarising. Using case studies of women with unplanned pregnancies, they will develop non-directive ways to support women to make decisions which are right for them.

The course helps participants explore their own feelings around unplanned pregnancy and looks at why women take risks in the area of contraception and pregnancy. Participants also get the chance to try out ways to support themselves in what is often a very challenging and stressful area of work.

Aim

To help participants develop their counselling skills for unplanned pregnancy.

Learning outcomes

• Identify the principles of basic counselling skills.
• Appraise own counselling skills and develop these further.
• Increase knowledge on why women risk unplanned pregnancy.
• Raise awareness of own attitudes to risk taking and abortion.
• Identify ways to apply the learning in the workplace.

Number of days

Four (an abridged two-day version is also available as an on request course).

The FPA booklet Pregnant and don’t know what to do? A guide to your options may also be of interest