- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- preconception articles
- preconception q&a
- community & groups
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
From Our Sponsors
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Healing the Mind, Healing the Body
An Interview with Helen Adrienne, MSW, ACSW, BCD
By Gwen Morrison
Couples who are struggling with infertility are bombarded with how easy it is for some people to conceive, and that adds discouragement to the list of emotions surrounding them. When you include the intrusive procedures, fertility drugs and watching your life under a microscope, it's no wonder it becomes an emotional roller coaster. In many cases, couples end up turning their raw emotions on each other.
"Bad feelings can escalate," Adrienne says. "Our individual coping styles don't always match." When this happens, the real issues get lost. "Infertility is both a personal crisis and a couple crisis. It has the potential to destabilize a marriage or even wrench it apart."
Adrienne points out that with crisis comes an opportunity to step back, get your bearings and choose a direction. A crisis in a marriage is often an opportunity in disguise. "Stresses are catalysts which make us become more of who were already are," she says. "What are minor annoyances in easier times become more obvious in times of stress."
Adrienne explains that if the real issues are exposed, understood and dealt with, couples can find great relief.
"There is no one kind of therapy," Adrienne says. "It depends on what the person is asking for, which sometimes evolves into something entirely different."
She remembers cases where infertility therapy morphed into couple's therapy and even divorce therapy. "Often women need help dealing with the enormous anxiety attendant to the infertility diagnosis or treatment," she says. "There is so much that gets thrown into high relief as a result of the infertility experience. Part of my job is figuring out what the woman or couple are experiencing, prioritize and then distill the treatment down to bite-sized pieces."
Want to see more?
Comments
There are no comments for this article yet.Be the first to 
|
Post As:
|
||
| Enter your comment below: | ||
| Title | ||
| Comment Text | ||
| CAPTCHA | ||
| Please note that any comments submitted become the property of Disney Family / iParenting and can be edited and posted at our discrection. | ||