I am so much more than my disease.  -- Countless cancer patients

Dealing with Health Issues

Supporting those with chronic and life-threatening illnesses--and their loved ones.

If you're living with or in treatment for an illness, it’s likely you're also experiencing quite intense emotions, chaos and confusion as you face disturbances such as: loss of work and energy; compromised abilities; anxiety around procedures, surgeries, treatments, and the future; and concern about the effects all this is having on your family and loved ones. Escalating worry and emotional stress actually can compound your suffering and be as troublesome as the physical illness itself. And, the cultural pressure to just “press on” is simply no help at all.

It's a lot for anyone to bear alone the uncertainty, fear and upheaval an illness can bring. Those in the process of undergoing intensive medical treatment can benefit enormously from the extra psychological and emotional undergirding that counseling can bring. And those who have completed treatment often need extra support when they recognize they are returning to what can feel like a radically new life, with changed perspectives, altered relationships and unforeseen challenges.

I provide support, encouragement, and a calm, receptive presence to help you work through whatever emotional and psychological difficulties arise around your health. This well may be the time to shore up your inner resources, and I provide tools and coaching so that you can DO something about your situation and feel empowered to manage your anxiety, stress, and worry, and cope well with uncertainty. At times like these, when dialogue can be inadequate, I might suggest guided imagery (see below) music and arts therapies as co-therapists. Often they succeed where words fall short and can enable patients to shift into helpful new ways of thinking and feeling.

With additional certification in Integrative Medicine and Spirituality, I have worked with the sick and terminally ill since 2004, including those suffering from life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, and chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes. I consider myself experienced in the emerging field of psychosocial oncology, which is concerned with the effects of cancer on a person's psychological, social and behavioral health. These can affect the course of cancer as well as its remission.

Through this work I have come to see that our emotional, psychological, and spiritual states all contribute to our overall physical health, healing and sense of wellbeing. So, paying serious attention to the patient’s inner response to their plight is essential in any medical treatment plan. Also, I have witnessed that we can be extraordinarily resilient; even the most serious illnesses and disturbing life experiences can lead us toward growth, connection, creativity, and wholeness.

Guided Imagery for health and healing

Are you looking for a way to manage the anxiety and emotional toll that your health problems exact on both you and your loved ones?  Would you like to be in better control of your feelings as you face medical procedures, and do better tolerating the pain, ambiguity and stress that come with  being ill?  If yes, then learning to use guided imagery can help you with all these things--and more. Guided imagery helps patients cope with chronic pain, immune dysfunction, cancer, heart disease, and other catastrophic and life-threatening illnesses. It is a powerful, yet gentle, tool that teaches you how to access your inner resources and cope better with the many issues that challenge your health and sense of wellbeing.

Not everyone has strong visualization skills, so it is important to know that, although the term imagery suggests visual capability, it can manifest in our emotions as well as through all our senses and our whole body.  Almost anyone can "do" guided imagery, and it does not require any special skills or a superior imagination to benefit from it. If you ever have worried, then you have used your imagination!

Guided imagery works largely because of the mind-body connection. For example, if we envision cutting up a fresh, juicy lemon and imagine its sharp citrus taste and fragrance, pretty soon, most of us will begin to salivate. This is because our bodies don’t know the difference between real and imagined lemons. Guided imagery takes place in a state of deep, relaxed focus with heightened sensitivity to the object of your attention. This allows our brainwave activity and biochemistry to shift, our moods and mental processes to change, and our fear around a procedure, for example, to be replaced with a sense of calmness and optimism.

Research findings over the past 25 years have demonstrated that guided imagery has a positive impact on a number of health measures, and also on creativity, performance and a host of psychological issues. It has been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce the blood's cholesterol and glucose levels, and increase the activity of immune cells. During surgery it can reduce blood loss and, afterwards, it can lessen the amount of painkillers needed. It also reduces the unpleasant effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea, depression and fatigue.

For a comprehensive list of guided imagery research studies, please see: https://www.thehealingmind.org/assets/File/research.pdf

For more information on dealing with illness, please see my sister site: www.dealingwithillness.com 

The great error of our day
in the treatment of the human body [is] that physicians separate the soul from the body.
--Plato

The soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient: It knows how to survive in hard places . . . deep in the thickets of my inner wilderness, I could sense the presence of something that knew how to stay alive even when the rest of me wanted to die. That something was my tough and tenacious soul.
--Parker J. Palmer

I can be changed
by what happens to me. 
But I refuse 
to be reduced by it.
--Maya Angelou

People gain so much hope 
when they know they are not experiencing something alone.
--Joyce Rupp 

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