Virtual workshops are available for professionals of all levels who have a role that impacts families touched by birth and bereavement.
Our professionals workshops are an intimate time to come together to not only learn tangible skills in serving families, but also to look into our hearts, inspecting our perceptions and beliefs around birth and bereavement. Our virtual workshops serve to equip when the requirements of in-person workshops become limiting.
What the virtual workshop gives you
~~Within 8 days, you’ll be given free portions of our full 8 week training program, and more.~~
You will have exclusive access into an online environment just for professionals, located in a private room established through SBD University. In this environment, you will have 8 days to absorb all of the resources provided to you, including demonstration videos, reading materials, and opportunities to engage with the others attending the workshop, allowing each of us to bring to one another and to learn from one another. This environment allows you freedom to explore the content within the comfort of your own scheduling needs. These workshops are led by any of our presenters team. Virtual workshops are not limited to available seating, location or time.
The materials available to you will cover a wealth of important aspects in your role:
- specifically in honoring the space where birth and bereavement meet
- assessing the immediate practical needs of each person present
- learning how the critical steps of: slowing down, validating, providing options and supplementing resources apply to most any specific aspect you may encounter
- learning tangible ways of creating meaningful keepsakes
- setting a strong foundation for the lifetime healing journey ahead.
To participate, the tangible items you will need:
- a waterproof doll (baby dolls are much preferred)
- two bowls deep enough to submerge the doll in water
- towel
- clothes to dress the doll
- camera with photo publishing abilities (you’ll share photos with the group)
- basic audio/visual technical abilities on your computer
- shoebox sized box
To participate, you will need:
- ability to be vulnerable
- honor our trusting environment by upholding the highest confidentiality and respect for all attending
What the virtual workshops will not give you:
- There is always something substantial that happens when people come together in person to meet and learn. Some of this is lost in online communications, even through utilizing audio/visual capabilities. Our in-person workshops or other events are always preferred for this reason.
- You will have some guided demonstration in tangible support tasks, as well as some exposure to the emotional needs that are foundational in coming alongside families who experience where birth and bereavement meet. This however does not mean you will become an expert, nor does it mean that you will be taught how to give love. There is no such thing as a perfect checklist of tasks to present to each family – much of what you bring to families will have to come from your own capacity for vulnerability, validation and love.
- There is no pass or fail for this workshop, but simply an opportunity for you to choose to engage in the activities presented and share your experiences with those attending the workshop with you.
- Many resources are given during this time, but spending the slow and deliberate time in our full 8 week training program shapes something significant. You are encouraged to move beyond the virtual workshop and commit to the full 8 weeks of training, which offers you 30 nursing contact hours, credentialing, and much, much more.
“I appreciate the clear way that everything was laid out, and how on the most basic level, no matter what kind of birth is happening, there is a way to approach it as a doula with love and understanding. This is something that I find fascinating, and what I strive everyday to do. Incorporating that love into life and death, and being the strength for those who need it most is truly the very essence of our roles as doulas, and I will strive to incorporate what I have learned about that into my business, and my life.
The opportunity to participate in this workshop has been an eye opening one. I am grateful I have more tools at my disposal now, that in the event I am called into service for a mother needing a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, or the strength to just take one more step, that I can be there to help her through her journey of grief, to the other side. That in her journey, her humanity will be restored.” – Virtual Workshop attendee
Getting Registered
Virtual workshops schedule:
The SBD online workshops open on the 2nd day of every 2nd month and are open for an 8 day period each. The schedule is as follows:
- February 2 – 10
- April 2 – 10
- June 2 – 10
- August 2 – 10
- October 2-10
- December 2-10
Steps to registering:
- complete registration form below, at any time and for any scheduled workshop
- submit payment below
- check the Virtual Workshops registration roster after 24 hours to confirm you are added
Days before the workshop:
- within the week before your scheduled workshop, you’ll receive an email with information to access Stillbirthday University and locate the workshop environment. If you have not received your email by the first day of the month of your workshop (that is, by Feb 1, April 1, June 1, August 1, October 1, December 1), simply email Heidi.faith@stillbirthday.info with “Waiting on Workshop” as the subject line.
- have your materials needed and an open mind and heart for learning, academically and emotionally.
