SASS: Sacred and Safe Support

Your right to choose and healing rites working together without judgment or polarization. Integrative support for patients and medical providers.

In my twenty-five years of healing work in Canada and the U.S., I have rarely met a woman who had not had an abortion or miscarriage. Many of the women I work with tell me that they feel safe for the first time to speak of their long held secrets and womb stories for the first time in years. The experiences never spoken out loud, not to family, nor even to their psychotherapists of many years. Clients, such as clinic patients and providers (nurses and doctors) experience a deep level of trust and safety knowing they can speak freely without being shamed or judged- supported in ways that are both freeing and empowering.

For some women it might only be a few days since the termination of a pregnancy, but for the majority it has been years, even decades since their abortions, or other womb events. A belief in women's reproductive freedom does not have to negate a need or desire to integrate complex life experiences that could include womb loss/abortions.

It is permissible in our society (even encouraged) to speak about many emotionally/spiritually difficult life transitions; the ending of relationships, divorce, alcohol/drug abuse, eating disorders, and experiences in rehab clinics--and yet for the countless women who have had abortions they are mostly urged to remain completely silent!  How can  there be healing when everything is bottled up inside, never free to tell anyone about experiences that shape a woman and the people in her life? My work with women and their womb stories is a response to this muzzling of women.

A provider who works with such care and commitment to supporting a woman's right to safe and legal abortion may also need empathic support too --allowed to speak openly... My work provides a safe outlet and a healing response in an understanding, compassionate and nourishing environment.

I responded to this professional calling, ingurging me to expand my abortion related support. More and more the importance of this work is expressed to me as it is reflected in the cards, calls, and emails from clients who respond enthusiastically to this much needed work.

Women yearn for an opportunity to be authentic and true, no matter their politics, religion or backgrounds, to be free to ask for support and integration if it is desired.

My intention is to take abortion out of the closet, to name the giant elephant in the room that no one will acknowledge and yet is clearly needing to be addressed.

Break free of the fear and shame, I know it takes a leap of faith to trust you will be safe to speak your truth--and the rewards are well worth the leap.

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Questions I asked myself that impact by my unique healing practice:

• What happens to a woman after she has had a surgical or medical abortion and leaves the clinic? What happens for her in the days, months, years, and decades after her abortion?
  
• Where does she go to find comfort, counseling and emotional sharing from a non-dogmatic and caring ally?
  
• Who helps her explore the powerful and overlapping feelings she may have, often all interconnected at the same time; the emotional, spiritual, physical, sexual, and relational concerns that can follow her abortion?
  
• Who does she confide in, cry with, create healing ritual with, and tell her story to, without fear of condemnation?
  
• How does she honor and integrate such a powerful life-threshold -- one of the many threads woven within the tapestry of women's blood mysteries?
  
• How can she be respectfully guided through this tremendously important life transition?
  
• What are the symbolic, mythic, and transpersonal implications of an experience that is shared by countless women the world over from ancient times through today?