Events of Interest

EM•POWER donation is an organization dedicated to empowering choice and fostering understanding for all stakeholders involved in embryo donation.  Founded by Maya Grobel, LCSW, Jen Vesbit, NCC, and genetic counselor, Gina Davis, EM•POWER provides educational webinars and support services free of charge to the community.  EM•POWER is funded by the department of Health and Human Services. 

Save the date for our next live webinar, Talking to Kids About Embryo Donation.  In this 90-minute informational session, the EM•POWER team will explore different ways to talk with children about embryo donation.  We will share our family experiences and discuss tools and tips to support children as they develop their own unique narratives.  Maya will start by talking about how embryo recipients can talk to their children about their unique beginnings, and Jen and Gina will cover talking to children of embryo donors.  While this webinar is specific to families connected to embryo donation, it could also be a good support for any family created through donor conception.  One note: Our webinars are designed to keep participant names and questions anonymous to other viewers. 

This webinar is the third in a series of five.  If you missed our first two webinars and are interested in checking them out, you can watch them here.

Additionally, please mark your calendars for our next two webinars!

Becoming a Parent Via Embryo Donation
Saturday March 13th • 10am PST / 1pm EST
This webinar will focus on the recipient's experience and will explore family building and parenting through embryo donation.

The Experience of Having Frozen Embryos
Saturday April 10th • 10am PST / 1pm EST
This webinar will cover the various choices one has for remaining embryos and will dive into the decision making process and experiences for embryo donors.

Continuing education credits are not provided.  EM•POWER webinars are not endorsed or sponsored by the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.  

Sharon Covington, LCSW and Linda Applegarth, Ed.D. are pleased to announce their for-profit, year-long training program, Fertility Counseling Postgraduate Course (FCPC).  In the 6th year, this course will meet via live, video conference monthly for 3 hours, from September 2021 to June 2022, in closed cohort classes and provide 30 CEUs, including 3 for Ethics.  The attached flyer describes the course, provides instructor bio-sketches, and CEU information in more detail. 

Fertility Counseling Post-Graduate Course

As the instructors, Linda and Sharon are compensated directly by course participants for presenting relevant clinical and academic material as well as for providing additional information, resources, and current research in fertility counseling and reproductive psychology. The Fertility Counseling Postgraduate Course is not endorsed or sponsored by the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

More information and applications can also be found at:

https://covingtonandhafkin.com/supervision-training/

FERTILITY COUNSELING POST-GRADUATE COURSE*

*A fourth class has been added for this year's class starting Fall 2021 and a few spaces are still available.​*

Reproductive Psychologist Dr. Janet Jaffe joins Deb & Nao to talk about the tremendous impact that miscarriages and infertility have on couples.  In the podcast below, she explains the power of our reproductive stories, and offers ideas for meaning making and support during what for many couples is the most difficult issue they have ever faced together.

https://thecouchwithdebandnaomi.libsyn.com/miscarriages-infertility-and-couples 

Dr. Jaffe was also recently interviewed by NPR on how to talk about a miscarriage.  This interview discusses the emotional and physical trauma families cope with after an unintentional pregnancy loss (about 31 minutes in).

https://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2020/10/02/21241/ 

This 30-hour introductory-level year-long course is geared towards all mental health clinicians and will be led by licensed psychologist Dr. Julie Bindeman from Integrative Therapy of Greater Washington, who will benefit financially from this training.  This 10-month long course will be an overview in the field of reproductive psychology and will cover infertility, pregnancy/neonatal losses, postpartum issues, and birth trauma.  Each month, we will explore an aspect of one of these topics in depth.  The course is limited to a maximum of 10 participants to ensure an atmosphere that promotes didactic learning as well as experiential and case consultation.  This course is considered to be for beginners or those that have had relatively few classes in these topical areas.  There will be one month devoted to ethics.  Attendance at all of the meetings will yield 30 Continuing Education Credits for APA.  This training is not endorsed or sponsored by MHPG or ASRM.

For more information, please visit:

https://greaterwashingtontherapy.com/courses/  (overview)

https://greaterwashingtontherapy.com/event/reproductive-psychology-a-comprehensive-year-long-training/