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Finding the Support
You Need
With trained professionals and caring volunteers, we’re here to walk alongside you and help you take the next step toward peace and hope.
Explore the different ways you can find support, whether that’s connecting with a counsellor, accessing helpful resources, getting in touch with our team, receiving prayer, or reading stories and feedback from people who have already experienced a retreat.
However you choose to begin, we’re here to walk alongside you.
counsellors
Find compassionate, highly trained counsellors ready to walk with you, offering wisdom, care, and a safe place to begin your journey toward wholeness.
get prayer
The Gift of Hope and Healing
At Rachel’s Vineyard, we believe that the gift of hope and the grace of healing are for everyone. No one is beyond the reach of God’s love. Prayer is simply talking and listening to God. You might find comfort in using words written by others, or you may wish to bring your own words before Him.
Talking to God
My life feels empty of truth,
my soul is searching for light.
Holy Spirit, guide me.
Christ, save me.
Father, forgive me.
You make my soul whole and tender,
you hold my life in your hands.
Holy Spirit, fill me.
Jesus, know me.
Father, love me.
If you are carrying guilt, shame, or simply need someone to pray with you, please reach out. You can fill in our prayer form or contact us by email—we would be honoured to walk alongside you in prayer. All requests are treated with respect and kept completely confidential.
real stories
Discover authentic experiences that illustrate the journey through grief and healing.
He Found Out
The Next Day
As the father of an aborted child, men are often excluded from finding healthy expression for their grief.
This story is from a man who speaks of his son’s abortion loss, and later his son’s suicide.
I only found out about the abortion the next day, when it was already over. I had been kept out of the decision so I wouldn’t be able to influence her, but in truth I was left confused and unsure what to think.
We could have helped, but we never got the chance. What hurt me most was seeing how my son was cast as the bad one, and how things with his girlfriend changed after that. People stepped in and said they were both too young, which was true, but no one gave them the space to grow or find their own way.
In the end they split up for good, but by then it was too late. Hope had drained away for my son, and after the abortion my son couldn’t find any hope for himself either.
If this story has raised issues for you, we are here to help. For confidential support and advice
I Just Wanted The Whole Thing To Go Away
This is the personal story of a young woman looking back on her experience of an unexpected pregnancy and abortion during her final year of study. At the time, she felt alone, unable to share what was happening with friends or family, and pressured to simply “move on.” Her words describe the shock, isolation, and unresolved grief that followed — feelings that continued to shape her life long after the event.
I didn’t want to hear about being pregnant or about choices—I just wanted the whole thing to go away
All my friends seemed to be with someone and I was really beginning to wonder why I found it so hard. By the time I was in my final year, I still didn’t have any kind of special relationship with anyone and basically, I just wanted to finish with study and get on with my life.
The problem was, I didn’t finish. When my period didn’t come, I went into shock. I had been careful but obviously it didn’t work.
In the end, I just blocked it all out. When I went to the clinic, they asked me some basic questions and took the paperwork away for someone to sign. I don’t remember anyone talking to me very much—All I remember is being told not to talk to anyone apart from the clinic staff and to take it easy for a few days afterwards.
Everyone seemed to think that I should be able to put it all behind me and focus on my study.
It didn’t happen that way though. I didn’t settle into work for my exams. I didn’t tell any of my friends and it was too late to tell anyone in my family. The clinic organised some counselling but I didn’t want to go back there or have anything to do with anyone from that place. They were all OK with what I had done, but I wasn’t.
I know that my behaviour back then after the abortion was unsafe and reckless, but I didn’t really care.
How do I feel about it now? It’s the part of my life that no one can know about. It’s not something anyone could feel proud of and even when you hear people say that they support a woman’s choice, you know that it’s not really a proper choice. It’s like running away from something that’s never going to stop following you.
If this story has raised issues for you, we are here to help. For confidential support and advice
It's Like An Invisible
Neon Sign
This is the reflection of someone who experienced abortion many years ago but still feels its impact every day. They describe the weight of secrecy, the fear of being recognised by others with the same experience, and the struggle to reconcile their past with the life they’ve built. Using the vivid image of a circling shark, they share how the pain returns again and again, and their hope that one day it will lose its power and simply drift away.
My experience of abortion is so long ago… But the effects of it have been with my all my life. I’ve told very few people about this experience—partly because I don’t want to become one of those people who ends up trying to justify abortion and partly because I can’t face having my friends and family, even after all this time, looking at me and just knowing
I can spot the same experience in other people a mile off and I am terrified that they will recognise it in me.
It staggers me that even my closest friends haven’t picked it up yet and part of me knows it is only a matter of time. I’ve had numerous counselling sessions for all sorts of other issues as well as careers advice, skills training, leadership and management training to help me sort out what my true calling in life is. Certainly it has all helped and I have managed a fairly credible career…
But there remains a part of me that just doesn’t believe I really am who I say I am.
I once heard someone describe alcoholism like a circling shark and I’d describe carrying the knowledge of abortion in the same way.
It really is like a shark that circles around then goes away again. You know it will be back, each time a bit closer and because I am ‘trailing blood’, it always knows where to find me. My hope is that, over time, something will work and I will finally get beyond it.
Realistically, I know that for me, this particular shark is always going to be in my life and even if I stopped trailing blood, I know that sooner or later it would find me again. What I hope for now, is that when it does, it will no longer be hungry—it will just swim away.
If this story has raised issues for you, we are here to help. For confidential support and advice
helpful links
Explore resources, support services, and informative links to aid your healing journey.
Greenstone Doors
Located in Lower Hutt, Wellington region, Greenstone Doors offers ‘a safe place to talk’ for anyone who is uncertain about pregnancy or who has an experience of pregnancy-related grief or loss.
The Buttons Project
Creating a memorial for babies lost to abortion. Two decades ago, when I was 20, I had an abortion. At the time, I thought it was the answer to my situation and that it would be quickly forgotten. It was not. This Project is my way of commemorating those we never got to meet. If you would like to add a token of your loss to the thousands of others, send a Button.
Rachel’s Vineyard Australia
Regular Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats are held at locations throughout Australia.
Rachel’s Vineyard USA & International
The work which began Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats through Dr. Theresa Burke and her husband Kevin Burke is now an international network. Look here for Spanish language resources.