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Emotional Challenges of Inflammatory Bowel
Disease: Therapeutic Intervention for Children and Families Living with Chronic
Illness
Presenter: Frances G. Martin, Ph.D., Clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice.
Objectives: To familiarize participants with physical manifestations of inflammatory
bowel disease (IBD), through descriptions and distinctions between Crohn's
Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. .To identify specific emotional challenges faced
by children and families coping with these illnesses. .To discuss phases of
adjustment to IBD, and extrapolate to other chronic illnesses. .To explore
effective therapeutic interventions - both what is available as well as what is
needed; to differentiate psychological risks from emotional opportunities.
Diagnosis of a chronic illness can be considered a crisis for families,
warranting thoughtful and directed attention. Specific challenges must be faced,
and adjustments made. Medical interventions, medications with potential benefits
as well as side effects, changes in lifestyle, and expectations for self and
others, are among the numerous critical issues that must be identified and
ultimately managed. A chronic illness such as IBD impacts not only the patient,
but also parents and siblings. The needs of each of these groups must be
understood and addressed.
Adjustment often requires experiencing phases similar to those resulting from
the loss of a loved one. Understanding what has been lost is an essential
element of adjustment; effective adjustment leads to successful adaptation.
Phases and their manifestations will be presented and discussed, with particular
attention directed toward the unique requirements of living with a chronic
illness. Certain amounts of anger, sadness, frustration are to be expected, but
clinically must be distinguished from maladaptive response patterns.
Therapeutic intervention, under these circumstances, pro-vides unique
challenges as well as opportunities to apply clinical skills in more traditional
and familiar ways. In con-trast to our many therapeutic efforts toward
addressing conflicts that linger from our pasts, or have become areas of
fixation within the unconscious, chronic illness presents a physical and ongoing
challenge - often with no clear end in sight. Thus, specific areas must be
addressed including: the nature and parameters of physical manifestations of the
dis-ease, pain management, psycho-social growth and development, medical
procedures, side effects of treatments, secondary gain, as well as numerous
losses, both real and imagined. While a chronic illness destroys fantasies of a
perfectly healthy life, effective coping with the subsequent emotional
challenges can enable both child and family to lead satisfying and productive
lives.
Complete PSPP 2003 Brunch
Series Brochure with Registration Form (pdf file)
| Date; |
January 19, 2003 |
| Time: |
NOTE Change in time: 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. -
Presentation and case material 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.-Discussion |
| Location: |
Courtesy of Beverly Cutler, Ph.D., 512 Hamilton Road
Merion, PA (610) 664-0403 |
| Cost: |
Free for members of PSPP. Nonmembers may attend the
brunches for free, but must pay $25 if they wish to receive CEU
credits. |
| CE Credits: |
Each
brunch is approved for 2.0 CEU credits by the American Psychological
Association. Division 39 of the American Psychological Association (APA)
is approved to offer continuing education for psychologists. Division 39
maintains responsibility for the program. CEU credits have been applied
for for licensed social workers. Please call prior to each brunch to
confirm that the program has been approved. |
| Contact:
|
Pamela
Miller Lunardi, Psy.D. at (610) 853-5654 |
Philadelphia Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology