Pregnancy Crisis Intervention by John Ensor

Author:John Ensor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian pregnancy counselors;Christian pregnancy volunteers;pro life books;pregnancy crisis counselors;books for pregnancy crisis centers;Christian pregnancy counseling;pregnancy volunteer;how to help pregnant woman;how to help pregnant women;John Ensor
ISBN: 9781683072652
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Published: 2019-03-06T21:33:33+00:00

7. She feels hopeless. You want to increase her hope that things will work out.

Pregnancy crisis intervention as a whole is about lowering fear and raising hope. It involves a lot of listening and educating, and examining of values and beliefs. It involves practical help and, at times, some long-term monitoring and mentoring. All of this activity comes down to lowering fear and increasing hope.

You may speak hopefully in general terms, but exploring matters of faith is also entirely appropriate. This is not just true because of your personal convictions that God exists and can be trusted to provide for a child he created. It’s true because most likely the woman or couple before you has been “praying” and is wrestling with their faith as a result of the crisis.

Exploring matters of faith is inherently a large part of crisis and crisis resolution. In the standard (secular) textbook Crisis Intervention Strategies (now in its eighth edition and used in universities in general), Richard James and Burl Gilliland forthrightly state:

Faith plays a huge role in the outcome of a crisis as people attempt to make sense of events that seemingly make no sense at all. Faith plays a large part in how people try to come to terms with a randomly cruel universe that crashes down on the notion of a supreme being that runs a just and moral world.[14]

Therefore, exploring matters of faith is not only appropriate, it’s crucial in most cases. James and Gilliland further write,

To deny or act as if religion, faith, or spirituality are not part of any crisis is to neglect a large part of a crisis response for most people. Exclusive of pastoral counseling, it is interesting that little space is given to the effects that religion has in the counseling business. Yet for most people trauma is the ultimate challenge to meaning making, and for most people, that meaning making is attached to some kind of faith.[15]

People in crisis are usually praying people. The woman before you will most likely say that she believes in God and then proceed to tell you about her religious background. While she may be off the path, she knows the path is there. She may have been sexually active under conditions that violate her religious ethics. But that same religion tells her that only God can create a baby. She may be considering abortion yet asking God for forgiveness at the same time.

So go ahead and open up the topic. What does her faith say? Who made her baby? Where is God in her life? Can she turn (return) to him? What does she think God’s will is right now? Can he be trusted and obeyed? Would she like you to share one or two of the promises in the Bible that may help her at this time?

If these are not relevant questions in her mind, then move on. Obviously, this area of conversation must be handled like all other areas—with maturity and respect, and with her expressed consent.

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