Course Category: Parenting Essentials

Today, a government in which women have never had an equal voice reached deep into the most private corners of a woman’s life to tell her the choice over what she does with her body is no longer her own…Right now, there are people all over the U.S. who are recommitting to the work ahead. To ensure that women’s voices are respected in a clinic or doctor’s office, we must also ensure that they are heard at all levels of society—in their homes and workplaces, in capitols and C-suites. That’s how we create a future where decisions are made by women, not for them. – Melinda French Gates

You may feel numb, overwhelmed, confused, frightened. You may feel a combination of these or a whole range of other emotions during this turbulent moment in our country. Peace At Home Parenting Solutions founder, Ruth E. Freeman, LCSW and Fairfield University professor, Tanika Eaves, PhD, LCSW, will help us find ways do the following:

1. Recognize that the threat of the government controlling women’s bodies and right to choose may trigger profound emotions and, in some cases, traumatic memories in our minds or bodies. And that we deserve support to handle those overwhelming experiences. 

2. Keep in the forefront of our discussions the fact that unwanted children suffer deeply as do their parents. For some people the very fact of having children is a trigger to trauma memories that happen in our minds and/or bodies and affect everyone around us. 

1. Remember that we will all benefit from safe spaces to talk with our families, among friends, in communities and at work about this decision. It is important to plan together and take mindful action steps to create those safe spaces. Healing takes place most effectively in relationship with others, even though our trauma sometimes whispers that this is not so.