Minding the Body

Psychotherapy in Cases of Chronic and Life-Threatening Illness

Ellyn Kaschak

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317719687
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Anesthesiology & Pain Management

Support and empower women who are coping with the pain, fear, and stigma of serious disease

Being diagnosed with cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, or fibromyalgia is a traumatic event that takes place at a time when the patient is already feeling physically (and often emotionally) drained. Minding the Body combines feminist and social constructionist approaches to offer an intimate look into the ways a therapist can help clients cope with the pain, fear, and stigma of serious disease.

Minding the Body offers an alternative to the reductive view of the mind-body connection and also examines the potential for growth that such experiences often allow. The essays gathered here show how an effective therapist can help the client deal with the painful and difficult emotions that exacerbate illness, while learning the emotional and spiritual lessons illness can teach.

Minding the Body presents both theoretical views and personal accounts of illness, including:

• scholarly discussions of the issues involved in autoimmune disorders
• a therapist's personal experience of chronic fatigue syndrome
• a personal and professional exposition of a woman's struggles with injury, illness, and managed care, co-written by client and therapist
• suggestions for understanding the social construction of illness and treating disease from a social-constructivist point of view
• narratives reflecting on the change and growth of therapists diagnosed with cancer and other serious illnesses

By looking at illness in the context of mind, body, society, and medical establishment, Minding the Body will help therapists, doctors, nurses, counselors, and clients deal with the grief, disappointment, and frustration of chronic and life-threatening illness.

Index

• Accident, fibromyalgia exacerbation, account of, 60–61
• ACR. See American College of Rheumatology
• Activity level changes, body image and, 17
• Acupuncture, illness and, 4
• ADA. See Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Adaptability, new constructs and, 92
• Adjustment, chronic illness and, 8
• Adjustment period, tasks of, 11–12
• Advocacy, therapist and, 53
• Air quality
  • research needed, 34
  • in sealed buildings, 27–29
  • symptoms from toxic, 27–29
• Air quality standards, Ontario, 31
• Allergies
  • Sick Building Syndrome and, 32
  • symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 24
  • allopathic medicine, medicine as science metaphor and, 77–78
• ALS, distinguished from fibromyalgia, 49
• American College of Rheumatology
  • criteria for classification of fibromyalgia, 48–49
  • fibromyalgia syndrome and, 46
• American Medical Association, Sick Building Syndrome and, 39
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • accommodations required under, 73
  • employment discrimination despite, 82–83
• Anger
  • at arrogance of neurosurgeon, first-hand account (of Denise Twohey), 118
  • at chronic illness, 53
  • as a means of coping, 82
• Anger management techniques, feminist therapists and, 18
• Anxiety
  • autoimmune disorders and, 11
  • breast cancer and, 104
  • first-hand account, 104
  • chronic illness and, 8
  • fibromyalgia and, 50–51
• Anxiety management techniques, feminist therapists and, 18
• Assertiveness training, feminist therapists and, 18
• Association for Women in Psychology (AWP), 122, 123
• Athletic pursuits, change of sport needed, 17
• Attitude, cancer survival and, 83
• Autoimmune diseases. See also Autoimmune disorders
  • reality of, 3
• Autoimmune disorders
  • acknowledgment of avoided by healthy individuals, 16
  • age of onset, 9
  • autoantibodies and, 9
  • cancer and, 1
  • characteristics of, 7
  • common, 9
  • course of, 10–11
  • endocrine functioning alteration and, 10
  • environmental factors contributing to, 10
  • ex...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• About the Editor
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Minding the Body: Psychotherapy in Cases of Chronic and Life-Threatening Illness
• How Can Feminist Therapists Support Women with Autoimmune Disorders?
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A First-Person Story
• Fibromyalgia: A Feminist Biopsychosocial Perspective
• Battling Injury and Chronic Illness in a Managed Care World: A Case History
• Social Construction of Illness: Addressing the Impact of Cancer on Women in Therapy
• Putting Theory into Practice: A Psychologist’s Story
• Feminist Psychotherapy in Cases of Life-Threatening Illness
• From Life-Threatening Illness to a More Sensitive Therapist: One Woman’s Journey
• Index