Cancer can be a painful and powerful disruption to a relationship. This book shows couples how to cope with the stress that cancer can bring and offers information on ways to make relationships stronger through the ordeal.

Early stage breast cancer can be stressful and upsetting for both the woman dealing with the disease and her partner. This illness can also place a strain on a couple's relationship. However, couples who are able to provide effective support to one another are more likely to adapt well. Focusing on the couple as a unit can promote effective coping for both patients and their partners . This couples-focused group program aims to improve a couple's functioning as a "team" and provides a supportive environment for couples facing similar breast cancer-related issues. Over the course of six sessions, couples learn support and communication skills, as well as techniques to manage stress and enhance intimacy. Modeling by group leaders and other couples facilitates skill acquisition. With continued use, the skills learned in group can have long-term benefits for couples . This guide, along with the corresponding workbook, provides all the information needed to implement this group program. It contains step-by-step instructions for running the group, as well as sample group leader dialogues, in-session activities, and homework assignments. The couple's workbook is designed to be shared by both partners as they work together through the program. By the end of the six weeks, couples will be better equipped as a team to cope with the stresses of cancer and the challenges that may lie ahead. TreatmentsThatWorkTM represents the gold standard of behavioral healthcare interventions! · All programs have been rigorously tested in clinical trials and are backed by years of research · A prestigious scientific advisory board, led by series Editor-In-Chief David H. Barlow, reviews and evaluates each intervention to ensure that it meets the highest standard of evidence so you can be confident that you are using the most effective treatment available to date · Our books are reliable and effective and make it easy for you to provide your clients with the best care available · Our corresponding workbooks contain psychoeducational information, forms and worksheets, and homework assignments to keep clients engaged and motivated · A companion website (www.oup.com/us/ttw) offers downloadable clinical tools and helpful resources · Continuing Education (CE) Credits are now available on select titles in collaboration with PsychoEducational Resources, Inc. (PER)

Here are engaging and digestible lessons for couples navigating the life changes brought about by a cancer diagnosis. Dan Shapiro draws on his more than twenty-five years of clinical work as a health psychologist who has researched and worked with couples facing cancer, and on his own experiences of being both the patient (having and beating Hodgkin’s lymphoma in his twenties) and the supporter/advocate (when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer) to weave together insights on facing cancer while maintaining a strong relationship. And in Health gives advice in short lessons on the main areas of concern or conflict that can come from life with cancer—from diagnosis to treatment and life post-treatment. Topics include: • How to forge yourselves into a powerful team and avoid common conflict points • Dealing with physicians and getting the best care possible, along with tips for navigating the medical world • Strategies for coping with the emotions that can interfere with your relationship—anger, mood swings, spouse fears, and depression • Distinguishing between supportive and draining people in your lives, and learning to invite and accept help • Opening to new types of intimacy and making peace with dependence

Something's happened now what do we do? What do I do? What do I really owe my loved one? And how can I even ask such a question? Having exchanged marriage vows or even if they haven't most people expect their partners to support them when a devastating diagnosis is made or an accident occurs.

You hear that a friend has cancer. You want to help, but you're not entirely sure how. Pamela Brown, a cancer survivor, suggests the many ways you can help by your words and actions. In addition to a wealth of practical suggestions, Facing Cancer Together includes entries from the author's journals, as well as Bible readings and prayers to share for support and comfor

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Over a million copies sold! “An eminently practical guide to an emotionally intelligent—and long-lasting—marriage.”—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work has revolutionized the way we understand, repair, and strengthen marriages. John Gottman’s unprecedented study of couples over a period of years has allowed him to observe the habits that can make—and break—a marriage. Here is the culmination of that work: the seven principles that guide couples on a path toward a harmonious and long-lasting relationship. Straightforward yet profound, these principles teach partners new approaches for resolving conflicts, creating new common ground, and achieving greater levels of intimacy. Gottman offers strategies and resources to help couples collaborate more effectively to resolve any problem, whether dealing with issues related to sex, money, religion, work, family, or anything else. Packed with new exercises and the latest research out of the esteemed Gottman Institute, this revised edition of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work is the definitive guide for anyone who wants their relationship to attain its highest potential.

With an irrepressible sense of humor coupled with profound religious faith, Howe interweaves up-to-date information on medical advancements with her compelling human interest story of dealing with prostate cancer.

Each year in this country, 30 million men and their partners are robbed of an essential part of their lives when they are faced with sexual dysfunction due to diabetes, prostate cancer, an injury or psychological reasons. Many desperately want advice, but are too embarrassed to broach the subject with a doctor or even with each other. In their timely and medically recognized book, Making Love Again, Virginia and Keith Laken give hope to these individuals who, like themselves, want to "feel normal" again. Virginia tells the story of how she and her husband have dealt with his sexual dysfunction, brought on by a radical prostectomy at the age of forty-nine. She reveals the solutions that have brought them closer together, and offers further resources and support groups that can be found on both the Internet and through local and national organizations. Making Love Again proves that it is possible to break free of one's pre-conceived ideas about sex, and to overcome impotency by continuing to make love in whatever form lovemaking may take. With a foreward by Dr. David Barrett, readers will admire the medical community's acknowledgement of this book as an aid to couples seeking to regain physical intimacy.

This book offers a new sense of empowerment for the intimate partners of people living with serious health problems. Collinge draws on cutting-edge scientific research along with his experience counseling couples facing serious illness to offer a range of insights, strategies, and techniques that caregivers can utilize to promote their partners’ physical and emotional well-being—while also promoting their own. Topics include: • The importance of self-care for the caring partner • Ways of involving family and friends in a network of support • Simple massage and touch techniques to bring comfort and reduce symptoms • How open, affirmative communication can contribute to healing • Basic energy-healing techniques to promote well-being

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men after skin cancer. However this cancer is highly curable and most men live for many years after treatment; only eleven percent of cancer deaths are due to prostate cancer. It is well known that the side effects of the treatment cause more suffering than the disease itself. Side effects of surgery include incontinence and erectile difficulties; radiation therapy leads to urinary and bowel problems; and androgen deprivation (hormone) therapy leads to a broad range of long-term side effects affecting physical and emotional functioning. But it is not only the man who suffers through treatment and its side effects. The partners and spouses of prostate cancer survivors are known to experience distress as the man they love moves through the various stages of diagnosis, treatment, and survival. While prostate cancer is a couples' disease, there is much attention paid to the man with cancer and very little to the person and his partner or spouse, who is his prime supporter and who often struggles to make sense of what has happened and why, and how best to support and take care of him. Prostate Cancer and the Man You Love speaks to the loving partners/spouses of men with prostate cancer, whether soon after diagnosis, or later when the man gets on with the rest of his life. Katz includes both the medical information necessary to understanding the disease and firsthand accounts from cancer patients and survivors and their partners. Tips for communication and problem solving, with both partners and health care teams, are offered throughout. Anyone dealing with prostate cancer will find in these pages comfort and insight, as well as specific advice for coping, healing, and moving forward in the spirit of healing and love.