Forward Allies Education

Our goal is to increase access and reduce barriers to quality reproductive mental health care through affordable education, training, and consultations.

The What:

Forward Allies Education was born from round table discussions on how to improve mental health care for families navigating pregnancy, postpartum, loss, and reproductive trauma.  

The ultimate goal of our training and consultation program is to reduce suicide rates, thus supporting families for generations.

These trainings have been carefully curated to provide information, research, and clinical techniques to support the families and individuals you care for in your work or mission.

You will be supported by individuals who work and serve families daily - our expert facilitators are lactation consultants, doulas, licensed therapists, and advocates (to name just a few titles).

We support all birthworkers.  Our CEs are specifically for licensed therapists in Pennsylvania - but these courses have been curated to support Doulas, Lactation Consultants, Therapists, Nurses, Midwives, OB/GYN, and many others who support birthing families.

The Who (Our Instructors):

  • Jodie Hnatkovich, LPC, CPLC, PMH-C, is an entrepreneur, educator, and reproductive trauma and loss therapist in Pittsburgh, PA.

    Over the last twelve years, Jodie has focused on grief and trauma recovery for families. Through a personal and professional journey, Jodie has organically curated a clinical specialty of perinatal loss and trauma, focusing on pregnancy loss, infant death, and traumatic childbirth (for both families and their caregivers).

    Jodie's group practice, Forward Wellness Counseling and Consulting Services, LLC, aims to support individuals and families navigating life transitions to find a better balance. Jodie has spent the last four years as the co-founder and Executive.

    As an advocate for birthing people and families, Jodie aims to support all families and their helpers in navigating the 'dark side of parenthood' through advocacy, research, and solidarity.

  • Erin (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Behavior Analyst and the Clinical Director of Forward Wellness’s Reproductive Counseling Center.

    Along with Jodie and others, Erin co-founded Forward Allies in 2019. Erin has been working in trauma-informed reproductive mental health care since 2014 and with women and families across settings since 2007.

    She provides individual therapy, supervision, consultation, and training utilizing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Contextual Behavioral Science approaches via a feminist systems lens.

    Before counseling, Erin studied cultural anthropology and is particularly interested in Evolutionary Psychology and the impacts of history, biology, and learning. She affirms intersectional identities that have been historically oppressed, including those in the LGBTQIA+, People of the Global Majority, and ND communities.

    Erin also co-founded an organization that supports mental health across international education experiences, Being Well Abroad. She splits time between Pittsburgh and Ireland with her partner and kiddos.

  • Ngozi is a nationally recognized speaker and educator on anti-racism, cultural humility, childbirth education, lactation, and health equity.

    She is a Minister and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Maternal Child Health and a Master’s Degree in Public Health. Our Founder believes in a holistic physical, emotional & spiritual approach to health and relationships.

    Ngozi has been married to her college sweetheart for the past 32 years, and they are the parents of five awesome children and one fantastic grandson.

    Learn more about Ngozi here.

  • Jenna "JB" Brown (they/he) is a full-spectrum reproductive care worker and community educator passionate about pelvises, humans, trauma-informed care, and justice.

    As a trans-non-binary person, he is practiced in the art (and awkwardness) of transition, and he brings this knowledge and compassion to his work as a doula and educator, supporting individuals and families through their own transformations in pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and beyond.

    In addition to their private practice, JB is a mentor, mentee, creator, and homesteader. He also provides consulting and support for folks seeking to include queer people in their work and those building online courses.

    You can learn more about JB's work by following him @LoveOverFearWellness on Instagram or visit him here.

  • Montia has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Norfolk State University and a Master of Science in Infant Mental Health Counseling from Chatham University. She currently practices as a mental health therapist and birth worker as a Licensed Professional Counselor in PA, nationally certified Counselor, Infant Mental Health Specialist, Certified Lactation Counselor, and DONA Certified Birth Doula. She is currently pursuing her certification as a postpartum doula through DONA International.

    Montia provides her direct services, teaching, speaking, and consulting through her role as a Behavioral Therapist II with The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Magee Behavioral Health and her company Mind Breast Womb, LLC.

    She has worked in predominantly minority and lower SES communities throughout her career. She continues to make it her mission to connect to people who look like and have shared experiences with her by providing accessible care, including mental health and birth services, at affordable rates, along with person-centered, anti-racist, culturally responsible care.

  • "Thoroughly enjoyed the information that I learned to add to my practice when it comes to dealing with trauma and specifically Reproductive trauma."

    GH 2022 Cohort Member

  • "It was really comprehensive in covering the many factors to consider in a holistic sense when treating someone in the postpartum period, as well as great reminders for staying connected w/ other professionals for accountability and continued learning and staying within our scope of practice. I liked Montia's person-centered, intersectional, and inclusive approach, as well as examples of how to translate these intentions into practice."

    JS 2022 Cohort Member

  • "I didn’t know how much I didn’t know until this course. I was incredibly grateful for JB and the thorough presentation on the topic as well as foundational knowledge on pronouns, honorifics, etc. "

    JS 2022 Cohort Member

  • "Erin’s presentations are amazing. I love her style and her knowledge is so valuable. This was a new approach to trauma care that I plan to learn more about and integrate into my practice."

    SK 2021 Cohort Member

  • "The ppt info/graphics/design was great (information-wise and visual-wise!), jodie did an incredible job incorporating the ppt into her talk while adding on so much more information and clinical wisdom. it was really excellent. "

    EW 2022 Cohort Member

  • "I really liked Ngozi's way of sharing her wisdom through talking about it in an engaging way, and incorporating videos and other resources to offer further illustration and learning. I especially appreciated her teaching about what being an ally really means, the history of the enslavement of African peoples, and the difference between cultural competency and cultural humility."

    JS 2022 Cohort Member

Why Allies?

We are allies AND this is us.

We are allies to families in our communities navigating birth trauma and loss.

We are allies to families seeking support for reproductive mental health issues and having difficulty accessing adequate care.

We are allies to families impacted by systems of capitalism, rugged individualism, and racism.

We are allies to communities oppressed by institutional systems via representation bias, language bias, and both implicit and explicit bias.

We are allies to clinicians and birth workers operating outside of systems that maintain oppressive practices.

Our History

Forward Allies Education is a collaborative project born from founder Jodie Hnatkovich’s journey through a full-term stillbirth and two subsequent traumatic pregnancies. Her experience included difficulty with access to care, education, and research. She struggled to find adequate support despite being a therapist herself. 

This experience has led Jodie to work towards filling this lifesaving gap and cultivated a practice centering trauma, grief, and loss across reproductive experiences.

In 2012, these experiences were revelatory for Jodie - and she soon realized that her situation was not uncommon in the United States AND that the statistics are worse for historically oppressed communities and victims of racism.

As we work to build a workforce that is adequately trained in Reproductive Mental Health care - we hope to increase access/ reduce barriers for families to access the care they need through all domains of their reproductive journey.  

The course now has the option for you to purchase individual classes.

The courses are 100% online and self-paced

What is the course:

The individual classes includes

  • Systemic racism and authentic allyship

  • Transforming reproductive loss and grief: what is “recovery”

  • Queering “infertility": how a LGBTQ+ lens can better our understanding of all paths to parenthood

  • Rage, guilt and scary thoughts: perinatal mood, anxiety and OCD symptoms and treatments

  • So, you’re a parent now… supporting postpartum families through resources, screenings and community support

  • Reproductive trauma: when healthy mom, healthy baby is not enough