Processing Living Scriptures

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June 13, 2022  12:00 PM MDT
60 minutes
Please note: this session is available for Rachel’s Vineyard Team Members only

Description:  The core of the Rachelʼs Vineyard is a series of meditations called “Living Scriptures,” in which retreatants are invited to listen to a reading from Scripture, and put themselves into that scene, hearing Jesus speak, and having an opportunity to respond in prayer or action. Following this, we can process the exercise, sharing individual responses, thoughts, and feelings.

Just listening to the Scriptures is not complete; being able to share our experience with others allows the group to minister to each other as the suffering Body of Christ, and opens us more deeply to healing. This workshop will explore how we do this, and why it is important.

Abortion Survivors

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October 17, 2022  11:00 AM MDT
45 minutes
CEU’s available

Description:  Children born because they are wanted, try to stay wantable. Eventually, they resent being dangled by the tenuous thread of wantedness and violently rebel. Children who live in countries where many or most children are aborted, have siblings who were aborted, who are part of a minority who would have been aborted had they been detected, or who have survived an abortion attempt, are Abortion Survivors.

Abortion and Depression

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October 17, 2022  9:45 AM  MDT
60 minutes
CEU’s available

Description:  The psychological bond between mother and unborn child is triggered by both physical/ hormonal changes, as well as the motherʼs support system and culture. The nine months of pregnancy are a journey of dramatic and rapid developmental transformation for both mother and child.

Buckle Your Safety Belt

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Crash Course on Personality Disorders

October 17, 2022  8:00 AM MDT
90 minutes
CEU’s available

Description:  Safety tips for helping companions on the Bipolar Roller Coaster to manage projections and being cast as a perpetrator in the trauma drama repetitions.

We begin with a brief overview of how trauma can distort natural gifts into the neurotic world and begin the genesis of a personality disorders.

Using a case example, we look at the role of previous sexual abuse and other trauma in relation to the challenges this can present in a ministry with post abortive/sexually abused clients, and the latest research on trauma treatment will help us understand the challenges presented in helping ministries and point the way to a safe and effective response.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand the relationship between sexual/physical abuse and abortion in creating unique challenges for those who serve them.
  2. Borderline Personality Disorder as a framework to understand the individual and relational symptoms that can significantly impact helping relationships.
  3. Use a case study to understand the unique intimacy issues with women or men who have experienced sexual abuse and the effect on relationships with clergy.
  4. Outline safety tips for clergy and counselors vulnerable to boundary difficulties.
  5. Define transference and counter transference in their ministry relationships.
  6. Provide a safe and effective therapeutic and ministry response to those suffering sexual abuse, abortion loss, and other traumatic experiences.

Adverse Drug Reactions

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June 13, 2022  10:30 AM MDT
60 minutes
CEU’s available

Description:  This seminar will focus on an array of drugs including the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), of which Prozac (fluoxetine) was the first.

Antidepressants have been recognized as potential inducers of mania and psychosis since their introduction in the 1950s. With the widespread prescribing of antidepressants, the percentage of the population in the United States that is diagnosed with bipolar disorder (swing from depression to mania or vice versa) has skyrocketed, especially among teens.

This class aims to teach you how to recognize the potentially serious side effects of these drugs, as well as allergic reactions and other complications related to the over prescribing of medications.

This seminar will reaffirm your conviction that healing lies in treating the trauma and grief that underlies many mental health problems which bring people into the psychiatric world of diagnoses, and a lifetime on an array of potentially disabling drugs.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Learn the many names of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and potential adverse reactions.
  2. To be aware of when these side effects are most likely to occur.
  3. Explore the various ways that toxicity from long term use of psychotropic medications can affect a person.

Crash Course in Trauma: PTSD, Part 2, Traumatic re-enactment

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2/22/2021  8:00 MST
60 minutes
CEU’s available

Description:  Since repetition is one of the greatest indicators of trauma, knowledge of traumatic reenactment will be a valuable tool for helping to understand behaviors which re-create aspects of the original trauma, such as powerlessness, destruction, fear, and shame.

Examples of post-traumatic reenactment will be given within the framework of eating disorders, multiple abortions, as well as anxiety over fertility, maternal identity, and sexuality. Until the trauma is fully acknowledged and worked through in an intensive way, individuals will continue to re-create the conflict again and again.

This can be particularly painful for those who have accepted Christ, but continue in compulsive self-destructive and shaming behaviors, which are rooted in Christ.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand the concept of traumatic reenactment.
  2. Identify therapeutic challenges.
  3. Understand how the trauma can be grounded in safety so that an individual can reconnect, integrate, and mourn the traumatic event so that it can be released and healed.

“Medical” Abortions

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The Deadly Assault on Mother and Child

February 22, 2021  10:30 AM MST
60 minutes
CEU’s available

Description:  Both chemical and surgical abortions have their risks. However, chemical abortions seem to be setting new trends as the abortion of choice, touting fewer complications, and privacy.

But what is the reality? Not only are there serious physical consequences from the chemical assault, but there are also obvious psychological, moral, and social consequences to this procedure.

Billed as an “emergency contraceptive”, Ella is recommended for use up to five days after intercourse, while other chemical cocktails are recommended to abort babies up to nine weeks gestation.

This workshop will examine the trauma associated with chemical abortions and some of the grief reactions that commonly occur. The goal of this workshop is to assist those who suffer from this type of abortion in the context of therapeutic interventions.

The material presented will also include cases we have witnessed on retreats, the unique and complicated form of grief, and the associated symptoms. In addition, we will explore the many legal cases resulting in convictions where women were given these chemical cocktails without their knowledge to force unwanted abortions.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Examine the emotional and physical trauma associated with chemical abortion.
  2. Explore the common grief reactions following medical abortions.
  3. Describe the link between eating disorders and chemical abortions.
  4. Understand the implications of the “home” as being a connector to traumatic sensations.
  5. Outline potential risk factors associated with chemical assault on endocrine reproductive system.

First Things First

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Nurturing your Primary Vocation, Prayer and Your Life in the Vine

February 22, 2021  12:00 PM MDT
60 minutes

Description:  The root of the word facilitation is ʻfacilʼ, or ʻeasyʼ, so facilitation means ʻto make it easyʼ. The role of the facilitator in Rachelʼs Vineyard is to facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit.

How does one ʻmake easyʼ the work of the Holy Spirit? How does one co-facilitate with the Holy Spirit?

This two-part workshop will explore the unique role of the retreat facilitator, as well as the skills, tools, and considerations essential to facilitating the retreat process.

The second part of the workshop will be a practicum where participants will apply these skills and tools through role-playing various retreat scenarios.

Some of the topics covered will include self facilitation, nurturing the environment, managing group process and group dynamics, discussion techniques, reading a group, intervention tips and strategies, and team facilitation.

Sleep Deprivation and Insomnia

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June 13, 2022  8:00 AM MDT
90 minutes
CEU’s available

Description:  This seminar will share groundbreaking results from a $15 million research grant awarded to the University of Pennsylvania to study the impact of sleep deprivation on brain neurochemistry.

This is relevant to our work with new mothers who may be suffering from post partum depression or babies who keep them up all night. In addition, it has ramifications for anyone impacted by trauma which interferes with their sleep.

We will discuss how the sleep cycle is controlled by the hypothalamus and is related to light and darkness (day and night) circadian rhythms. We have all heard that we should be getting 8 hours of sleep each night, but did you know that 72 diseases such as Cancer, Type 2 Diabetes, Anxiety, Depression, and even symptoms of schizophrenia have been linked to sleep deprivation?

During this seminar, we will examine how trauma, abortion, abuse and combat, or other threats to health and safety can impact sleep. We will explore how maintaining a healthy sleep life is paramount to maintaining a healthy waking life.

Learning Objectives:  

  1. Learn what Circadian rhythms are and how easily they can be impacted by shift work, trauma, jet lag, and other common factors we face in everyday life.
  2. Define insomnia severity and chronicity.
  3. Illustrate what constitutes the “ideal” approach to the treatment of insomnia.
  4. Summarize the medical and psychological consequences of insomnia.

Tracing the Roots, Tasting the Fruits

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An Overview of the Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat

February 22, 2021  2:00 PM  MDT
60 minutes
This session does not offer CEU’s

Description:  Rachelʼs Vineyard is a unique combination of psychological and spiritual techniques, which provide a powerful model for assisting groups to find closure and spiritual healing after abortion.

This workshop will present a descriptive overview of the Rachelʼs Vineyard Retreat, including content and process. An in-depth explanation will be offered for the Living Scripture technique, the specific purpose of each exercise, and psychological and spiritual constructs as catharsis for memory and emotion.

We will also examine the retreat structure as a means to provide an opportunity for dialogue of the soul and opening traumatic wounds to the grace of God. We will explore how the retreat functions as a journey through the paschal mystery for the suffering body of Christ.