Exploring the Experience of Difficult to Diagnose Illness
Much of our culture, including ourselves and the medical community, is uncomfortable with the unknown. When we are ill, we want to find out what is “wrong” and where we fit. We want a “diagnosis”. We need this information so that we can start “working on the illness”, eradicating it, controlling it, so that we can return to life as we know it.
This group is being offered for individuals who have or still are “living through” the experience of difficult to diagnose illness. The group
is appropriate for anyone who has struggled for an extended period of time with health issues, that have not been definitively diagnosed, were diagnosed, in error, as primarily psychiatric or were diagnosed years after the person became ill (including diagnosis with some of today’s generally misunderstood illnesses, e.g.
chronic Lyme, chronic fatigue, environmental illness)
The difficulty with this approach is that, for a significant amount of illness, “the cause” is never determined or is identified years later when a new pathogen or toxin is isolated or a disease pattern emerges. In the meantime, individual people remain ill. Their symptoms do not abate and they have no way to categorize or explain their experience.
Being ill for a protracted period of time without a “legitimate diagnosis” necessitates grappling with certain issues that diagnosable illness does not. Though each person has their own experience of this phenomenon, there are certain common themes that run through each person’s story, including:
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•The experience of not being believed
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•“Misdiagnosis” of symptoms as primarily psychiatric
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•Distrusting your own experience, looking outside yourself for the answers
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•Becoming overcommitted to proving there is a physical basis for the illness, in response to repeated experiences of denial, dismissal or pathologizing
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•Inability to safely acknowledge psychological or spiritual issues evoked or brought to light by the experience
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•Difficulty knowing how to relate to the world from this place without a way to categorize your experience and explain your loss of capacities
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•Coming to terms with “not knowing”
This group is designed to provide a safe, collaborative space to explore these common issues that must be addressed in the healing process. Additionally, the group will assist you in cultivating a closer relationship with yourself, shifting your relationship to your illness, and empowering you to live your life from a more integrated place, with an understanding of the gifts bestowed by the experience. The group will include experiential exercises, discussion and self-awareness practices.
Cost is $50 per session with a commitment for the series (eight sessions). $100 deposit to
hold your space, refundable up to one week before the group starts. Psychotherapy
experience required. Group size is limited to 6. Every other Monday from 10:45 am to 12:15 pm. Groups are offered throughout the year. Next Monday group starts April 2012. Next Saturday group anticipated Spring 2012. For more information, please call Darcie at 415-820-3250.
Where: San Francisco
When: Mondays & Saturdays from 10:45 am - 12:15 pm
Dates: Offered Throughout the Year
Darcie Spence, MA, MFT
, is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco. Her practice integrates psychodynamic, somatic and relational approaches to psychotherapy. She has longstanding interests in both the transformative power of illness and the connection between emotional health and physical well-being. For more information or to set up an assessment interview (no charge), please call Darcie at 415-820-3250 or e-mail her at darciespence@me.com. Her web address is www.darciespence.com. California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC40060).
Join Darcie Spence for an eight-week experiential therapy group
© 2011-2012 Darcie Spence, MA, JD, Psychotherapy, Consultation & Coaching in San Francisco ☎ 415-820-3250