The Hui Process: A framework for counsellors to explore abortion decision-making

Abstract

Abortion-specific counselling practices can fail to attend to clients’ self-knowledge and lived experience. The intention of this article is to discuss the scope of counselling in relation to a decision about accessing an abortion, and to trouble frameworks that seek to fragment women’s and pregnant persons’ lives into pre- and post-abortion counselling segments. When stories cannot be told in a space that is free from judgement – or worse, when they cannot be told at all – silencing is inevitable. The context of this exploration is a regional publicly funded communitybased sexual and reproductive health service in Aotearoa New Zealand. To explore the role of the counselling conversation throughout a person’s decision-making, the Indigenous framework the Hui Process is integrated. The relationship-building principles of te ao Māori (the Māori world) in the Hui Process complement a narrative approach to companioning. Both narrative therapy and the Hui Process support cohesive approaches to offering a safe space in which people can be heard.