Feminist-Informed Medical Family Therapy Principles and Techniques Across Biopsychosocial Systems Levels for Younger Women with Breast Cancer and their Partners

ABSTRACT

Nearly one fourth of women diagnosed with breast cancer are aged 50 and younger. Little is known about the impact of diagnosis or treatment on younger women and their relationships with their spouse or partner. The purpose of this paper is to (a) describe the issues younger women with breast cancer face, (b) identify how these issues impact the relationship between younger women with breast cancer and their spouse or partner, and (c) present an integrated feminist-informed medical family therapy model to assist younger women with breast cancer and their partners during diagnosis, treatment, and transition to survivorship.

KEYWORDS:

• Feminist family therapy
• medical family therapy
• breast cancer
• psycho-oncology
• younger women
• partners
• spouses
• biopsychosocial

The authors wish to thank Deb Templeton for her assistance with preparation of the figure.

Notes

∗Billy is a pseudonym.