Assisted reproduction techniques, with their sophistication and significant success rates, have brought back hope to couples struggling with infertility. However, fertility treatments can be extremely physically and emotionally demanding. Infertility is almost always accompanied by feelings of anxiety, disappointment and frustration towards a pressing desire that is not fulfilled, and those feelings can in turn negatively affect the process of treatment. Previous failed IVF attempts, a history of miscarriages and going through the actual fertility treatment stages, create an emotional rollercoaster that brings each partner to the limits of their abilities to cope with stress and trauma.
How does a couple experience and cope with infertility?
The way a couple experiences the psychological challenges of infertility depends on various parameters, pertaining to individual as much as couple’s characteristics. Among these, individual stressors like mourning a loss, work or living condition changes, financial difficulties that might be related to the high cost of treatments, and other factors unrelated to infertility, need to be dealt with before they interfere with treatments.
Coping with fertility treatments equally depends on the existence of support systems in their environment, like family and friends, which is often very limited as many couples struggle to share their fertility journey with their friends and relatives. It also heavily relies on the solidity of their marital relationship. Indeed, an unfulfilled desire for a child can put couples’ communication skills, the quality of their bonding and their desire to be together, to the test. Should they manage to pass this test, their relationship can be stronger than ever.
What are the advantages of Therapeutic Groups over Individual Therapy for infertility?
At Thrive Wellbeing Center, our Infertility Therapeutic Groups for couples can become a safe place where all these issues can be addressed. Beyond its indiscutable benefits, namely the fact that it can allow for an in-depth individual analysis of personal and couple dynamics, individual and/or couples therapy can be very costly, especially if we add to that the very high cost of fertility treatments.
Couples who enter a therapeutic group find themselves in an affordable setting where they can share their stories and the intense emotional situations they experience with other couples who are in a similar situation. They can thus identify with each other, support each other and create together new pathways for healing. In a warm, non-judgmental environment, therapeutic groups allow couples to mirror with each other and the therapist, and therefore accomplish the important task of acceptance, in two ways: escaping denial or self-accusations, and adapting to the circumstances of treatment, responding to its challenges with realistic optimism, notably during the hormonal preparation phase, before egg collection, before and after embryo transfer, after the announcement of the result, but also during pregnancy.
Couples who have participated in Infertility Therapeutic Groups have been able to think more positively, achieve better stress coping strategies, and rebuild trust in themselves and the community, by communicating their needs and desires more genuinely.
Call us now for more information and join an Infertility Therapeutic Group at Thrive Wellbeing Center by Dr Sarah Rasmi.
