Brittany Brown
Describe how the crisis may influence each member of the couple and how it may influence the relationship system.
Discussing something as difficult as failed fertility treatment with couples especially those who have been trying for a while can be a challenge. Couples may have their individual feelings towards this process. Depending on who has the fertility issues they could feel emotions like anger, guilt, sadness, anxiety, and lack of self-esteem or self-confidence. Those suffering from infertility whether it be one or both may feel like they are barren or incomplete. As a couple, they can feel the financial cost being stressful and the demand for sex to be a burden rather than something intimate that brings closeness. The relationship can have stress on it with all of these experiences and create a lot of turmoil in arguments within the home. Having to feel like you have to schedule times for intercourse becomes stressful and the longer it takes for the attempts in between can create anxiety for the couple. Without proper communication, there can be blame and awkwardness (Chen, et al, 2021).
Explain how the crisis will impact the therapeutic work.
Dealing with failed fertility treatments can impact therapeutic work as it can cause the challenge of discussing potential failures in the future or a complete infertility discussion with the clients. The “what ifs” cause a lot of anxiety and depression in any situation let alone trying to start a family and step into the next step of a relationship for most couples. Couples have already increased anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms that can impact self-esteem and confidence. They may question whether therapy will help since medical treatment hasn’t helped their situation what makes any other treatments help them feel better? They can have hesitation and be in denial. Couples can feel lost and unable to handle the challenging conversations about the possibility of failure or not being able to conceive at all (Williams, 2012).
Explain how a social worker could use a strengths-based approach to adjust a treatment plan to account for the crisis.
Social workers can focus on the positives and have positive regard and sessions to help bring up the confidence of a couple. Using strength-based approaches can assist in rebuilding connections within the relationship. Focusing on the couple’s successes within the relationship and their strength as a couple. Helping them to validate each other’s feelings, increase communication, and empathize with one another through this process. Loss and inability to conceive are not just for one of the Partners it affects both. They both lose in that situation but in different ways. The female will feel the physical laugh along with the emotional one. The mail will feel the emotional loss and the sadness for their partner going through the physical pain and symptoms. Social workers can educate couples about what to expect during treatment to assist with the comfortability of both partners. There is not only physical taxation to this process but also an emotional one (Flynn, 2023).
Reference:
Chen, R., Fussell, C., Austin, J. P., May, S. E., & Wang, Q. (2021). How therapists should work with infertile couples: A literature review Links to an external site. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 20(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332691.2020.1757545Links to an external site.
Flynn, S. V. (2023). The couple, marriage and family practitioner Contemporary issues, interventions, and skills. Springer Publishing.
Williams, M. (2012). Couples counseling: A step-by-step guide for therapists. Viale Publishing.
Nicole Alexia Macauley
Describe how the crisis may influence each member of the couple and how it may influence the relationship system.
Financial problems are a common source of stress in most intimate partner relationships. Studies show that financial stress can cause a breakdown in communication, impact trust, or build feelings of resentment between the couple. According to Gassman-Pines & Schenck-Fontaine, financial hardship has two dimensions: objective and subjective hardships. Subjective hardship refers to the worry and concerns that comes with the financial situation the person is facing (Gassman-Pines & Schenck-Fontaine, 2019). This can be reflected in job uncertainty, perceived worry about current and future financial problems, and employment instability. Objective hardship refers to the actual inadequacies in the family’s income due to unemployment or job instability which points to the inability to meet the financial needs of the family system. When considering the impact of an objective financial stress we consider how parents are no longer able to invest in their children, which impacts their development (Gassman-Pines & Schenck-Fontaine, 2019). It can also influence the emotional and behavioral processes with the family such as creating marital discord, impacting parenting patterns, and even increasing the risk of domestic disputes, and substance use.
Explain how the crisis will impact the therapeutic work.
When a crisis is introduced during therapy it can distract the client and make them less interested in the situation at hand, causing them to focus more on the crisis. A crisis such as having financial stress can have a domino effect that impacts everything else within the person’s life making the actual problem being discussed in therapy less significant. It might even exacerbate the original problem which could set them back from all the progress that has already been made. The loss of a job might even limit their ability to still afford therapy any longer.
Explain how a social worker could use a strengths-based approach to adjust a treatment plan to account for the crisis.
Although it will be hard, the social worker can employ strategies to help the clients stay focus. First the social worker can remind the couple of the progress they have made thus far and use those skills to help maintain health communication and to remain positive. Next, the social worker can encourage the couple to use this opportunity to build on their relationship by problem solving possible solutions together of how to cut cost, make compromises and offset some of their expenses to help mitigate the problem. In addition, the couple can be encouraged to use this situation to pursue new ways of making income. The couple can also be advised to think of each other as support and to refrain from turning blame or causing stress to jeopardize the progress they have already made.
Reference:
Gassman-Pines, A., & Schenck-Fontaine, A. (2019). Economic strain and job lossLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.. In B. H. Fiese, M. Celano, K. Deater-Deckard, E. N. Jouriles, & M. A. Whisman, APA handbook of contemporary family psychology: Vol. 2. Applications and broad impact of family psychology (pp. 457–470). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000100-028
Mercier, N. (n.d.). Understanding financial struggles in relationships. MindBeacon . https://www.mindbeacon.com/strongerminds/understanding-financial-struggles-in-relationships
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