Tell us a bit about what motivated you to write this book.

There are so many of us working in community health, nursing, medicine, family planning and mental health that care for women during times of decision-making. Patients ask us questions and express feelings and beliefs that can challenge our skills; we want to be able to respond with skill and grace. That is what this book is about. When patients ask, "Will God forgive me?" or describe their guilt, sadness, and loss we sometimes struggle with how to respond. The reason that I wrote this book was to create a type of manual or stand-alone guide for working with women who are making decisions about pregnancy. 

What can readers expect from Decision Assessment and Counseling in Abortion Care?

In this book, I put forward an approach and framework for working with the spectrum of patient conflict - emotional, spiritual, and moral - with abortion decisions as well as pregnancy decision ambivalence and how to talk about pregnancy options. The techniques that I teach are consistent across all types of conflict. Each chapter contains exercises to cultivate self-awareness but also to practice hard skills of listening and responding. As the reader moves through the chapters, it is my hope that she or he will feel inspired about the depth of the work, but also realize that these techniques are imminently learn-able no matter what one's past areas of study. 

Why a whole book dedicated to decision assessment? 

I think it is important to state that many pregnancy decisions are clear and most women who present at an abortion clinic feel certain, supported, and expect to cope well. But talking about the straightforward cases wouldn't make a very interesting book! The fun part is cultivating our philosophy and our practice for working with emotions and beliefs that challenge us to grow and change as professionals. The decision assessment is the way that we do this. The decision assessment does not create problems - it is a tool to discover if the patient is having conflict and whether she is interested in talking about it. A space is created for patients to share, but it's not a requirement! It's always important to keep in mind that at the foundation of our care, we are upholding the process of informed consent. A compassionate, non-judgmental space to talk about feelings and beliefs is an additional component of care that contributes to our standard of excellence.

Tell us about your experience with decision assessment and supporting women through their pregnancy experiences. 

I began working at an abortion clinic in Pennsylvania (by way of Indiana) while I was finishing my doctorate in clinical psychology. It changed the direction of my professional life. I moved to California, did a MPH in maternal and child health, and then went to work in research and program evaluation of family planning programs and abortion care. About five years ago, I decided that I wanted to get back into direct care and that my goal was to create the gold standard for decision assessment and counseling. The readers will decide how far I have progressed toward that goal! This is a life's work and one where there is ongoing personal and professional development and change. I am still learning about my own assumptions and developing new approaches for working in clinical care. I guess that's what makes life interesting. I hope that you find this book a useful guide in all of your endeavors to facilitate patient decision-making and support patients in their struggles and transformations.