With Merle Bombardieri, LICSW, Wellspring Counseling Center
For some people who have worked at pregnancy with their own gametes, the idea of an adopted child, or a child through donor insemination or donor egg, may not be acceptable. Resolving without parenting might be the right solution for them, but it’s often hard to be excited about this choice. Some people come to this choice because their relationship and other life pursuits are quite fulfilling; others come reluctantly because their partner is uncomfortable with alternative ways of parenting.
This workshop will look at the pros and cons and myths about this choice, how couples can overcome disagreement, how to include children and families in your life and meet the needs that children often meet for their parents, e.g. playfulness, nurturing, meaning; how a couple can heal anger and resentment and make the most of their relationship if one person would have preferred parenting; the role that grief work plays in the decision-making process and in facilitating a rewarding childfree life. Emphasis will be on practical techniques for healing, and on guidelines for communicating and decision-making.
About the presenter: Merle Bombardieri, LICSW, is a speaker, author, therapist, and is the former Clinical Director of RESOLVE. She has spent over 30 years counseling women and couples on infertility, decision making for ending medical treatment, adoption, egg donation and resolving without parenting. Merle is the author of The Baby Decision and of numerous RESOLVE, Boston Globe, and national magazine articles. Merle also runs expanded workshops on helping couples to decide whether or not to live child-free.
Where: Children's Hospital at Waltham,*
9 Hope Ave., Flashner Conference Room A, Waltham, MA 02453
*This is an outpatient facility, so no children are present in the evenings/on weekends. Click
for Directions
When: Saturday, March 29, 2008, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Fees: RESOLVE members: $10/person,
Non members:$20/person
Pre-registration is recommended, but walk-ins are also welcome to attend. Email us at admin@resolveofthebaystate.org
or call 781-890-2225 to reserve a space in this workshop.
