Helping couples deal with infertility

Cherie Borosh.

Postgraduate student Cherie Borosh’s training in psychological counselling, and her personal experience of infertility, inform work that will support and assist other couples.

With a trained psychologist, Borosh will be conducting action-based workshops using psycho-drama, to help couples work through issues troubling them.

“My aim is to help ease the isolation of couples dealing with infertility,” she says. “We will help them make sense of their experience and process what is happening to them both individually, and in their relationships.”

Personal experience

The work will be part of Borosh’s research for a Professional Doctorate in Psychology, with placement at the (in-vitro fertilisation) IVF Clinic at Westmead Hospital an integral part. She herself has been through the experience of seeking many types of assistance, up to and including IVF, but couldn’t find any trace of professionally-facilitated support groups.

She says the first question often asked by couples who are thinking of participating in the workshops is: “Have you been through this?” When they find that she has, many are so relieved that they cry. Her natural empathy would no doubt encourage them to seek further help.

Borosh speaks passionately about the kinds of issues infertile couples face. These include indecision over as many as 10 to 15 years, while keeping all life options open, and the pain and embarrassment of invasive medical processes, especially for women. Within relationships, men and women often have very different reactions.

She tells how when she visited the joyful parents of a new baby in hospital, she felt numb. Later, with the support of her own infertility group, she was able to process her feelings, using the symbol of the empty cot she had seen that day.  

How the sessions will work

In the groups she will organise, participants won’t face the social taboo of speaking about their feelings in such situations. They will be invited to use many different techniques to re-experience and process their feelings, such as pain, grief, joy, confusion and hope.

She will begin by bringing volunteer couples together for a screening and information evening. There they will be able to see a demonstration of the methods the group will use. They will be asked why they came along and, at the end, whether they will continue to come over the six weekly sessions and two full days, one at the beginning and one at the end of the course.

“In each weekly session there will be a warm-up, with the group leader helping to create relationships, build trust and a feeling of safety in the group,” says Borosh. “Then a protagonist may emerge, someone who has an issue they feel ready to deal with with others. In this group-centred method, the protagonist is doing not only their own work, but also creating space for the rest to explore common experiences, feelings and themes.”

Borosh will work as a support from outside the group.

“My research will look at the areas in which this kind of work can be of value,” she says. “Long-term, we need to look at offering a good range of appropriate counselling alternatives.”  

Eventually, she would like to set up in private practice.

If people join her study, Borosh says they will “meet and hear from other couples in the same boat. That’s an opportunity that can be difficult to find, and it can be a great source of comfort,” she says.

For more information, or to volunteer to participate in Borosh’s workshops, contact her at cherieborosh@exemail.com.au. Her supervisor is Dr Jac Brown, who can be contacted at jbrown@psy.mq.edu.au. The Psychology Department’s website is located at www.psy.mq.edu.au

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