Hi everybody! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I have a question that being a newbie in all of this, I thought you all might be able to help with. My husband and I think it would be a good idea if we went and talked with someone together and with our children who specializes in counseling marriages and families where one member is dealing with a chronic illness. It just seems like we could use some help processing our indivual emotions and finding new coping mechanisms and communications skills for dealing with what is, basically a new reality. Any advice as to how to go about finding a skilled therapist?
Thanks so much!
Sincerely, Rachel

Well, you could start by finding a support group near where you live (specific to the chronic illness). Then you could ALL go and find out how others deal with what you are dealing with.For example, my husband has severe neuropathy (idiopathic meaning they never found out why). We go to a monthly meeting of the Neuropathy Support group. Many members belong to this group. Sometimes we have 20 people show up, depending if there's a speaker. Everyone has something to share about how they are feeling, how their spouse deals with it, etc. Sometimes family members show up. One never knows. Now I know this is not a marriage counseling session, BUT it can be therapeutic. Believe me, I know.
Because living with chronic pain changes one's personality BIG TIME and it affects all members living under the same roof.

As to the marriage counseling, perhaps you can go to your local church or place of worship, and see if they have bulletins or flyers or some paper that might have an advertisement for marriage counseling.

Hey, one never knows.

Hope I gave you a little bit of good info here.

Take care, and try and have as Merry Christmas as you can possibly have.

Melody

You certainly won't go wrong by doing this with your family! Sometimes the hard part is getting them all to go
At least this shows that you want to stick together as a family....very admirable. Especially the chronic pain issue - I think that is a VERY good suggestion. Despite the fact that our families do indeed love us, more times than not they don't really understand what it's like to be the one in the constant pain.
I hope you find the right therapist for you and your family, or a support group as Melody mentions.

Rae