Iris Waichler, MSW, LCSW

Iris Waichler

Certifications:

Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Masters in Social Work

Area of Focus:

Counseling Patients and Family Member Coping With Medical Conditions including:

  • Strokes
  • Amputations
  • Head Injuries
  • Dementia/Alzheimers Disease
  • Counseling patients and families dealing with death and dying, loss and grief.

Infertility:

  • Counseling men and women family building using infertility treatment.
  • Counseling with women who have undergone in vitro fertilization.
  • Counseling with men and women who have chosen to be childfree.
  • Counseling with women and men who are considering building their families through surrogacy.

Caregiving:

  • Individual, group, and family counseling focusing on caregiving-related issues like having the caregiver conversation and burnout.
  • Counseling individuals and family members regarding finding the appropriate level of care.
  • Helping family members and their loved ones assess the appropriate level of care and finding the proper placement.
  • Counseling adult children and their parents around how to manage and understand their role reversal.

Education:

B.A. University of Iowa
MSW University of Iowa

Iris’s Recent Articles

Professional Background

Iris Waichler has been a medical social worker and patient advocate for 40 years. She was a member of a multidisciplinary treatment team working with patients on a physical medicine and rehabilitation unit. She was also the Director of Medical Social Work at a large hospital in the Chicagoland area. Iris has supervised social work students from all the Social Work schools in the Chicagoland area. Her work has focused on patients with catastrophic illnesses as well as providing psychological assessments, discharge planning, and counseling for patients and family members in emergency rooms. Ms. Waichler has done extensive individual, family, and group counseling offering therapy and support to patients and their family members. Ms. Waichler used her hospital-based work as the basis for her first book, Patient Power: How to Have a Say During Your Hospital Stay. (1988)

Ms. Waichler has been authored 3 books and written essays and articles for over 20 years. She has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Redbook Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Next Avenue, and Mind Body Green. She has been quoted in Parade Magazine. Ms. Waichler has authored 3 books and hundreds of articles on a variety of healthcare-related topics. 

Infertility:

Iris Waichler is the author of an 8x award-winning book called Riding The Infertility Roller Coaster: A Guide to Educate and Inspire. (2006) Her work blends personal experience with infertility and professional expertise as a medical social worker. She was was a regular content contributor to FertilityAuthority.com and The American Fertility Association rebranded as path2parenthood.org.

She did crisis counseling for RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association. In addition, Ms. Waichler led workshops and did conferences presenting on a variety of infertility-related topics. She also did individual, couples, and group counseling working with individuals helping them to develop coping mechanisms and educating them on topics related to their path to parenthood.

Aging and Caregiving

Ms. Waichler has extensive experience working with seniors in connection with her hospital experience, workshops, and conference presentations. Many of the patients and family members she worked with were facing a major medical crisis as seniors which added an additional challenging layer to their recovery.

Professional Organizations:

National Association of Social Workers

Books:

  • Patient Power: How To Have a Say During Your Hospital Stay
  • Riding the Infertility Roller Coaster:
  • A Guide to Educate and Inspire
  • Role Reversal:How to Take Care of Yourself and Your Aging Parents

Online Website Contributions:

  • Path2Parenthood.org

Previously at:

  • theamericanfertilityassociation.com
  • thecaregiverspace.org
  • intentionalcaregiver.com
  • resolve.org