The Healing Choice: Your Guide to Emotional Recovery After an Abortion (Paperback)

~ Candace De puy (Author), Dana Dovitch (Author) "The journey toward resolving post-abortion pain begins with your awareness that the decision you made to end your unwanted pregnancy was a choice that altered..." (more)
Key Phrases: inner mother, past abortion, abortion day, Self Wheel, Exercise One, Exercise Two (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Los Angeles^-based psychotherapists DePuy and Dovitch provide much-needed guidance for those dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder after abortion--an emotional wound often felt years afterward. Richly accompanied by sidebars quoting from Maya Angelou, Marilyn Monroe, Ayn Rand, Lily Tomlin, Margaret Sanger, and other notables, their text initially addresses the reality of pregnancy and the myths surrounding motherhood and then details the procedure of abortion from clinical as well as emotional standpoints. The second section examines the aftermath of abortion, giving special emphasis to feelings of guilt and anger and to seeking forgiveness. Acceptance is the focus of the third and final part, with DePuy and Dovitch discussing the slow and ongoing process of transformation and healing. Throughout, the book features exercises designed to help women conflicted over having had abortions reclaim their bodies and achieve a state of peace. Whitney Scott

Product Description

Two psychotherapists present a supportive guide to coping with the emotional and psychological aftermath of abortion, offering a step-by-step program that combines information, reassurance, and guidance to help women begin the process of recovery.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Fireside; 1 edition (March 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684831961
• ISBN-13: 978-0684831961
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #226,372 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #31 in	Books > Nonfiction > Women's Studies > Abortion & Birth Control
  #83 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Personal Health > Stress > Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, January 21, 2001

By A Customer

This is a good book on emotional recovery after an abortion. I was helped by the book. I also derived an extreme amount of comfort from the book An Encounter with a Prophet. Althougt the latter book deals with much more than recovery after an abortion it was most helpful to me and I hope it helps you to.

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Of no help to me afterwards, October 28, 2004

By	xt - See all my reviews

I found this book to be very limited in scope. Knowing first hand what the experience is like, it is and will be different for everyone. This book is based on 40 women and 53 questions...hardly a wide range of data when by the age forty-five 1 out of every 2.5 women will have an abortion. I do not agree with a lot of what this book has to say. EVERY woman's experience will be different and sometimes the decision made turns out to be the wrong one. This book does not take that into account nor do I feel that it really goes into the depths of the pain that can be felt having to go through such an experience. This book almost makes having an abortion as black and white as most of society has made it. It is not an easy decision, it is one of the hardest that I think anyone could ever have to face. It goes well beyond having a child or not having a child. Finally, my largest complaint about this book is that it dismisses those women who do suffer severe emotional distress afterwards by saying that they were more than likely "unstable prior to their pregnancy"(introduction). That is absolutely absurd. This is such a far reaching decision, why is having "severe emotional trauma following the procedure" any less viable than not suffering severely?

Not all terminated pregnancies are unwanted (as the book refers to the terminated pregnancies over and over again) sometimes they are just unplanned and sometimes there are just too many pressures from the outside world.

I turned to this book in hopes of coming to terms with my own decisions, one I have regretted ever since but this book does not take people like me into account. More needs to be said and done for women who go through this. More needs to be done to help them afterwards.

I am absolutely pro choice and have no religious affiliation so my review of this book is not based on being opposed to abortion whatsoever. Overall, I just feel that this book is very limited and it was not at all beneficial for me. I sincerely hope that others have better results after reading it though. Healing is extremely important.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Healing Choice: Your Guide to Emotional Recovery After, January 17, 2000

By A Customer

This is a comprehensive book that speaks to women in all circumstances who have had an abortion and explores every emotion involved -- demonstrating ways to deal with each emotion, that feeling the emotion is "normal", and giving evidence that although women struggle alone to deal with their abortion-- they aren't alone in that its a complicated healing process that many women have experienced if not shared. I wish I had known about this book before my procedure so I had some idea of what I was in store for-- it makes sense of the struggle to deal with it both before and after the fact. As far as I'm concerned, it should be recommended by all professionals whose patients have had abortions.