Case Study Examples

Background:

Michael, a 40-year-old man, and his wife Emma, 38, had been trying to conceive for eight years. They underwent 10 rounds of IVF treatment, each resulting in disappointment and failed attempts to achieve a successful pregnancy.

Emotional and Psychological Challenges:

1. Persistent Grief and Loss: Michael and Emma experience ongoing grief and heartache with each failed IVF cycle, mourning the loss of their dream of becoming parents. They were feeling shattered emotionally, in their words. 
2. Financial Strain: The financial burden of multiple IVF cycles had added stress and pressure to their lives, impacting their emotional well-being and relationship.
3. Relationship Strain: They were struggling to navigate challenges in their marriage, grappling with communication breakdowns and using very different coping mechanisms.
4. Hopelessness and Despair: Michael felt a deep sense of hopelessness and despair, questioning the fairness of their situation and losing faith in their ability to ever become parents. As well being unable to provide support to Emma when he was stuggling to manage his own emotions. 

Therapeutic Approach:

We worked with a myraid of tools from unbinding shame and anger from grief, to deep grief counselling about the past, present and future, communication skills, relational skills. We further used coaching techniques to look towards the future.

The process took 8 months of individual and couple sessions. 

1. Couple Counseling: I facilitated open and honest communication between Michael and Emma, helping them to express their grief, fears, and frustrations constructively. Helping them both to feel heard, seen and validated in their grief. 
2. Coping Strategies: Together, we explored coping strategies such as embodied, somatic movement, deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and guided imagery to help them manage stress and anxiety.
3. Grief Work:  We worked through their varied experiences of grief and created awareness of their own coping strategies, finding ways to make new choices to move through their grief. We worked through strategies to minimise emotional reactivity to their infertility challenges.
4. Exploration of Alternatives: We worked through the dreams they held when they were first married that didn't involve children, we looked at who they needed to speak with to discuss sorting their financial state. Created space for them to become aware of other ways they could feel and how that could create a new reality and future.

Progress and Outcome:

Despite the ongoing challenges, Michael and Emma demonstrated resilience and strength throughout their therapeutic journey. They deepened their emotional connection through therapuetic counseling, rebuilt their communication skills, and developed a shared vision for their future. Whilst they continued to navigate their grief over infertility, they found solace in their renewed sense of unity and hope for what lies ahead, in embracing a fulfilling life together.

We ended therapy with a solid plan to get their physical reality into a less stressful place and some real tools on how to continue to build their lives together.

Background:

Sarah, a 35-year-old woman, and her husband John have been trying to conceive for six years without success. After multiple visits to fertility specialists, Sarah was diagnosed with medical infertility due to severe endometriosis and blocked fallopian tubes.

Emotional and Psychological Challenges:

1. Grief and Loss: Sarah experienced profound grief over her inability to conceive naturally, mourning the loss of the biological child she and her husband had envisioned. 
2. Sense of Inadequacy: She struggled with feelings of inadequacy as a woman, believing she has failed in her fundamental role to bear children. This was also rooted in shame based feelings.
3. Isolation: Sarah felt isolated from friends and family who did not fully understand her situation, exacerbating her sense of loneliness. Their lack of understand about why she didn't want to adopt or foster drove them further apart.
4. Anxiety and Depression: She battled with anxiety about the future and slipped into periods of depression, especially after failed fertility treatments and negative pregnancy tests and the loss of hope.

Therapeutic Approach:

1. Validation and Empathy: Through empathetic listening, I validated Sarah's feelings of grief, inadequacy, and isolation, emphasising that her emotions are normal and understandable given her circumstances. 
2. Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT): Employing ACT techniques, we work on reframing negative thought patterns and challenging cognitive distortions that contribute to her anxiety and depression.
3. Grief Counseling: Implementing grief counseling strategies, we explored Sarah's mourning process, helping her to express and process her grief in a safe and supportive environment.
4. Supportive Strategies: I introduced coping strategies such as mindfulness exercises and journaling to help Sarah manage her anxiety and regulate her emotions.
5. Parts Therapy: We explored the different aspects of her shame and worked through them alongside her anger.
6. Brain Working Recursive Therapy (BWRT): we created a new vision for viewing herself to be able to unbind from the anger she felt towards her body as well as created boundaries with family and friends. 

The plan for Sarah was varied and we utilised the tools that served her the most in each session. 

Sarah's work with me lasted 6 months. 

Progress and Outcome:

Over several months of therapy, Sarah made significant progress in her emotional healing journey. She began to accept her medical infertility as a part of her life story rather than a personal failure. Sarah developed resilience and found new sources of fulfillment in her career and hobbies, enhancing her overall well-being and sense of purpose.