At last, here is a comprehensive guide for practitioners who work with breast cancer patients and their families. It includes a series of psychosocial interventions to be used with couples during early stage breast cancer. Chapters present information on assessing the levels of stress in these couples and on the most appropriate interventions for this problem. There is extensive evidence that emotional and social support positively influences women's abilities to cope to breast cancer. The first person that a woman with breast cancer turns to for support is her husband or intimate partner. However, as partners of breast cancer patients are struggling with their emotional distress, helplessness, and anxiety with the diagnosis, they often feel inadequate about their ability to help their wives and partners cope. It is important for practitioners to understand this concept of twofold stress.

Provides an empirically-based theoretical framework and practical interventions for practitioners to use when counseling breast cancer patients and their partners Grew out of treatment protocol developed for the clinical research study Interventions are very clearly described with step-by-step procedures Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Karen Kayser, Professor, specializes in health psychology, social work in medical settings, intervention research, and couples therapy. She is the principal investigator of "Skills Training for Breast Cancer Patients and Their Partners" (funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Breast Cancer Research Program).

Recently she co-organized the "International Meeting on the Developmental Course of Couples Coping with Stress" (supported by a grant from the American Psychological Association, Science Directorate). She teaches courses on family theories and research, couples therapy, and social work practice with women. She received her B.A. from Michigan State University and her M.S.W. and Ph.D. (Social Work & Psychology) from the University of Michigan.

Klappentext

Close relationships can be vital to a woman's recovery from breast or gynecological cancer and the myriad stressors that accompany diagnosis and treatment. Helping Couples Cope with Women's Cancer shows readers not only how to enlist the patient's closest support person in coping with the disease, but also to help that partner with the stressors, such as feelings of inadequacy and loss, that so often come with the role.

The authors, established experts on their subject, recognize the challenges couples face, the central role of communication in coping, and the individuality of each patient and couple. In addition to proven intervention techniques and helpful assessment tools, the book features case illustrations, "What to do if" sections, sociocultural considerations, and suggestions for when the patient's caregiver is not her partner. Key areas of coverage include:

• Assessment: quality of life, impact of illness, family resources.

• Balancing work, family, self-care, and the demands of illness.

• Cognitive coping, relaxation, stress reduction.

• Body image, sexuality, and intimacy.

• Helping children cope: developmental guidelines.

• Transitions: goal-setting, life after cancer, facing recurrence or terminal illness.

The skills and insights contained in Helping Couples Cope with Women's Cancers will benefit a range of health and mental health practitioners, including counselors, social workers, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and nurses. Graduate students planning a career in health psychology or couples therapy should also find it a valuable resource.

Inhalt
Assessment: Toward an Understanding of How Couples Cope with Cancer.- The Nature of Cancer and Its Psychosocial Challenges.- Why Work with Couples?.- Assessing the Couple's Adjustment to Cancer.- Intervention: Helping Couples Cope with Women's Cancers.- Integrating Tasks of Illness into the Couple's Daily Routine.- Building Cognitive Coping Skills.- Communicating Support.- Expanding the Couple's Coping Skills.- Enhancing Sexuality and Body Image.- Helping Children to Cope when a Mother Has Cancer.- Living with Cancer After Treatment Ends.