Frequently asked questions

Calling to speak to one of our team members is the best way to learn more about whether Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat will be helpful for your healing journey.

Of course! Please share our website with someone you know who may need support after an abortion.

Post-abortion counseling is a compassionate, Christ-centred approach to healing after abortion. It provides a confidential environment where you can honestly explore your experiences, emotions, and spiritual questions with someone who understands. Through prayer, conversation, and proven healing practices, many people discover renewed hope, peace, and freedom.

Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats are offered to men and women in the Northwest Indiana area who are struggling with the effects of an abortion experience. If a weekend retreat doesn’t suit you, Project Rachel has other healing programs you are welcome to explore.

Our Program Director would be happy to speak with you and answer your questions

Yes! Couples who attend a retreat with their spouse report an increase in communication, intimacy, and trust in their relationship areas negatively impacted by abortion. We understand that each couple is different, there are situations where attending as a couple is not possible or desirable, and sometimes, each person can be at a different stage of their healing journey. However, don’t be afraid to ask your spouse to accompany you on the retreat, especially if you are both parents of the aborted child. Even if your spouse was not involved in the abortion(s), there is still a great benefit to attending the retreat together.You can also ask a close friend or sister to be with you at the retreat for emotional support.Everyone attending will be required to promise complete confidentiality, even those who are there for support.

There is a saying in Alcoholics Anonymous: “Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell; but spirituality is for people who have been there.” The unhealed trauma of an abortion experience can create a living hell for those who suffer. The quest for true healing, therefore, frequently becomes a spiritual journey. Rachel’s Vineyard provides a safe environment to do the work of recovery from an abortion. Many, many individuals have been transformed and set free from the pain of abortion as they journey through this healing weekend.

Maybe you can relate to Terri…“I am looking into attending a retreat but am reluctant to do so because I have had more than one abortion. I am afraid that I may be the only one and will be judged differently or singled out in some way, given my experience. I feel horrible about what I have done; I struggle to forgive myself and am growing weary of trying to live with this burden. Can you help?”Thanks for contacting us. You may be surprised to learn that multiple abortions are very common. It is not unusual to have retreats where most of the participants have had more than one abortion. In fact, repetition is one of the greatest indicators and most reliable demonstration that you have experienced trauma. This tendency to enter patterns of repeat pregnancies and abortions is often related to unresolved feelings, unhealed events, memories and feelings that have never been processed or integrated into your life. Many times, they are related to your first abortion experience.Without healing from this initial painful and traumatic experience, many women go on to have repeat abortions, and with each abortion, there can be an intensification of the painful feelings and reactions associated with each loss. The flip side of intensification is a complete numbing. A robotic type of repetition which feels dissociated from all feeling and emotion. If you’d like to read more about these types of traumatic response patterns, you will find extremely helpful information in Forbidden Grief – The Unspoken Pain of Abortion.The inability to forgive oneself is also a very common reaction to participation in abortion. This is often related to the need to go through a healing process that allows one to safely but effectively enter into the grieving process as you surface and release buried emotions. The grief work makes room in our hearts so we can receive the grace of forgiveness. Until that is done, many people struggle to forgive themselves.I encourage you to attend a Rachel's Vineyard Weekend Retreat. Even if it requires some travel, it would be well worth it. Rachel’s Vineyard is especially helpful for those who have tremendous difficulty forgiving themselves or being able to embrace the forgiveness of God. I guess you could say that this is our specialty!You will find you are not alone, there will be no judgment or condemnation, and you will find healing and peace. The retreat will help your soul open like a flower, and your heart will be able to receive and really feel the forgiveness of God in that deep place where you need to experience it. The grief work is the hardest part, but Rachel’s Vineyard will provide a very safe, structured, tried and true process that will support you in getting to the other side of your grief.I can assure you that it is very unlikely that you will be the only one on Rachel's Vineyard retreat with a history of multiple abortions. In the most heartbreaking cases, we've had women with 12 - 15 abortions attend Rachel's Vineyard, so don't be afraid. You will not be judged. All of us are here to help you heal.Theresa (founder of Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats)