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The Waiting Room, seminar for couples with fertility issues, holds today

By Editor
11 February 2017   |   3:37 am
The Waiting Room seminar will provide an emotionally supportive environment for such couples to expressly dialogue about the impact of this struggle on their lives, without feeling judged.

Gbemi

When two lovebirds get married, naturally, the next phase is parenthood! However, when this doesn’t happen as soon as they expect, the couple begin to experience a whole gamut of emotions including worry, fear, anger, disappointment, frustration, and so on. Some people even begin to develop a negative self-concept. The love that once ran so deep begins to lose its depth, as the couple has to deal with external pressure in addition to the emotional rollercoaster they are experiencing.

The Waiting Room seminar will provide an emotionally supportive environment for such couples to expressly dialogue about the impact of this struggle on their lives, without feeling judged. Fertility challenges will be addressed from both the medical and psychological perspectives. The inability to effectively manage and communicate feelings results in negative interactions and sometimes no interaction at all and this further drives a wedge between the couple. Therefore, couples will learn effective communication, as well as effective coping skills to deal with the struggle to conceive.

They will also be encouraged by the testimonies of others who were able to navigate this journey successfully as a team against all odds, and where all hope has been lost, there will be a rebirth. There will also be professional counsellors available to work with the couples one-on-one, if so desired.

The main essence of this seminar is for each couple to eventually be able to look back on their seemingly tumultuous journey to parenthood and proudly say, “We made it and emerged even stronger as a unit!”

The Waiting Room Seminar was borne out of a desire to offer emotional support to couples dealing with fertility challenges. It is powered by The Family Place, in partnership with Nordica Fertility Centre, Pasture Counselling Centre, The Real Woman Foundation and Attitude Development International. The Family Place, an initiative of Miss Gbemisola Ogunrinde, is a mental and behavioural health services provider committed to fostering wellness and wholeness in all individuals.

Gbemi is a Qualified Mental Health Professional (QMHP) with special interest in Marriage and Family Therapy and Play Therapy for children/adolescents. She also conducts individual therapy for adults and facilitates professional counselling trainings, parenting education workshops and workshops on mental health.

She has been privileged to work with various client populations from different economic strata and ethnic backgrounds, addressing challenges such as relationship problems, marital conflict, anger management, grief, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and phases of life’s problems.

Gbemi is committed to contributing to humanity by helping others overcome life’s struggles and find meaning in life. She adopts a multicultural and integrative approach to therapy, which enables her to adapt to each client situation and employ appropriate strategies that would be beneficial to each client per time.

She holds a bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Psychology from Covenant University, Ogun, Nigeria, and master’s degree (MA) in Family Psychology from Hardin-Simmons University, Texas and is a member of Psi Chi, the International Honour Society in Psychology. She is a member of The Canadian Association for Child and Play Therapy and has been trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for working with troubled children.

In addition to being the lead therapist at The Family Place, Gbemi also serves as an Independent EAP Counsellor for Morneau Shepell and as a therapist on the Leke Alder jacknjilive.com platform. She believes in a new Nigeria and has chosen to play her part by impacting the home front.

According to her: “The family being the most fundamental unit of society is its greatest agent of change.”

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