Abstract
Chronic Illness in adults presents a variety of challenges to the couple relationship. These illnesses develop over time within unique individuals and function like a third element within unique couple relationships. This chapter considers the multiple roles performed by the systemic therapist assisting the couple where chronic illness in one of their members can set in motion a series of challenges to the relationship that sometimes require long-term systemic therapy. The longevity of the therapeutic relationship in some instances highlights the importance of the continuous building and maintaining of the therapist’s attachment with the couple as they face together a mixture of solvable problems and other problems which require acceptance and forbearance rather than a search for solutions. The chapter shows how themes typically encountered in this area of long-term systemic therapy invite the practitioner to expand the range of practice frameworks informing the work, achieve greater flexibility in the ongoing building of therapeutic relationships and find new resources in the supervisory relationships supporting their practice.
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Sheehan, J. (2020). Couples with Chronic Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Long-Term Therapeutic Relationship. In: Vetere, A., Sheehan, J. (eds) Long Term Systemic Therapy . Palgrave Texts in Counselling and Psychotherapy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44511-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44511-9_2
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