Join us for Community Offerings

Relationships and MS

Navigating relationships can prove to be difficult and require ongoing work. The physical and emotional symptoms, common with MS, can make relationships even more challenging. This in-person 3-hour program will address the needs of couples living with MS who experience difficulty with making their relationship a priority, explore the worries about how the changes in roles and responsibilities affect their partner and relationship, and learn a common language for communicating and resolving conflicts around problem solving. Following the program, couples will be encouraged to spend quality time with one another to reflect on their experience. A light dinner will be provided to take with them to support this encouragement of ‘couple time’.

Date: Monday, September 23, 2024
Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Location: Mercy San Juan Medical Center - In-person only
Presenters: Tiffany Malone, MSW, MSCS & Meghan Burke, MSW

Space is limited to the first 10 couples.

Registration and $20 fee per couple are due by September 13th. The series will not be rcorded.

Living with MS as a Couple

Rosalind Kalb, PhD is a clinical psychologist who has specialized in MS care and education for more than 40 years. After receiving her doctorate from Fordham University in 1977, she began her career in MS at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the country’s first university-based comprehensive MS care center. Dr. Kalb currently serves as Senior Programs Consultant for Can Do Multiple Sclerosis, helping to develop and implement health and wellness programs for the MS community. She is also currently in the process of publishing the 3rd Edition of ‘Multiple Sclerosis for Dummies’. This virtual session will include educational material on building and maintaining a healthy and mutually satisfying relationship while living with multiple sclerosis. Couples will learn strategies for managing invisible symptoms, communicating effectively, overcoming the many challenges of this diagnosis and the many changes it may cause in a relationship.

Monday, September 30, 2024
11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

Registration is required.
This session will not be recorded.

Please register by September 23rd. To register, contact 916-453-7966 or [email protected]

Book Club

Join us in 2024 for bi-monthly book club meetings with the John A. Schafer, MD Multiple Sclerosis Achievement Center. Read/listen to all or a portion of the book and connect with others in the MS community to discuss or just listen in! The meetings will be held virtually via Zoom.

Book Club is free and open to members and non-members of the John A. Schafer, MD Multiple Sclerosis Achievement Center.

• Monday, February 5th, 1-2pm = The Woman in Me, Britney Spears
• Monday, April 1st, 1-2pm = The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab
• Monday, June 3rd, 1-2pm = Swamp Story, Dave Berry
• Monday, August 5th, 1-2pm = The Mine, John Crandall
• Monday, October 7th, 1-2pm = Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
• ***Monday, December 9th, 11am-12pm = Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff

***Please note the time difference of December’s meeting

Virtual Yoga Series

Our upcoming Chair Yoga series, led by Gena Foreman, is an adapted form of yoga that makes it accessible to everyone. Gena has over 25 years experience as a student, teacher and mentor. Her classes are a balanced fusion of informed, conscious yoga postures with attention to breath (pranayama) and healthy energetic alignment. Her instructions are clear and concise, offering modifications to address injuries or the special needs of her students. Throughout her classes students learn yoga is not a “one size fits all practice” and that there is more than one way to be in a pose. 

The practice is done entirely in a seated position; no yoga mat is needed. It is best to have a comfortable, sturdy chair with no arms to give the body more range of motion, but one with arms will work, if balance is a concern. Please wear comfortable clothing.

Virtual Classes

• Monday, September 9, 12:00-1:00 pm PDT 
• Monday, September 16, 12:00-1:00 pm PDT 
• Thursday,September 26, 1:00-2:00 pm PDT 
• Monday, September 30, 12:00-1:00 pm PDT

Please register by September 3.

Registration is required and a ZOOM link will be emailed to registrants. Space is Limited.

Registration fee for all four sessions is $25. Checks can be made payable to MS Achievement Center, and the registration fee can be mailed to: 

MS Achievement Center 
7777 Greenback Lane, Suite 108 
Citrus Heights, CA 95610 

To register, contact: 916.453.7966 or [email protected]

Writing as Healing

Have you ever considered expressive writing as a form of healing? Writing has been proven to have a positive, healing effect, and we are pleased to welcome John Crandall, author, educator, and artist, to facilitate this free writing workshop. Join us virtually to experience a creative, artistic, and confidential form of sharing the written voice.

Writing As Healing is open to members and non-members of the John A. Schafer, MD Multiple Sclerosis Achievement Center.

Every 2nd Monday of the month
1-3 p.m.