Working Together to Help Patients and Clients Heal and Recover
Information for Health Professionals
I'm sure we share the same vision - to provide our patients and clients with the best possible treatments available for cancer care. Working together creates an opportunity for us to achieve this vision. You manage the medical and physical aspects of cancer treatment, while I support clients to manage the immense emotional and lifestyle challenges that a cancer diagnosis can have on a person's life and relationships.
Beyond Breast Cancer Blueprint is an accessible online program based on my 40 years of expertise as an oncology social worker. The program is designed to support women navigating the challenges of breast cancer and life beyond treatment.
Have a patient you feel will benefit from the program? Click the button below to make a referral.
First, Let Me Explain What I Do
I give women with breast cancer evidence based tools and skills to adjust to life after a cancer diagnosis, from navigating treatment through to living with advanced and terminal cancer.
The science shows these tools and skills play a protective role in cancer progression as well as improving quality of life regardless of prognosis.
I will also share with you an interesting discovery I made when I ran my Online Founders Program, Beyond Breast Cancer Blueprint.
What Health Care Professionals Tell Me About Cancer Patients
Whether you're an experienced healthcare professional or just starting out, or whether you have a non-health related role, working with patients or clients with breast cancer can be personally and professionally challenging and even confronting sometimes.
Feeling limited by your role to help your patient's distress, pain, fatigue, their fear of recurrence, stress levels, can leave you feeling helpless, and perhaps less effective than you would like to be, so what can you do to change this?
Let's Collaborate to Provide Exceptional Cancer Care
Together, we can support your patients to access holistic cancer support. You work with the body, while I work with the emotional aspects of cancer treatment, and support clients through the grief, challenges and fear that a cancer diagnosis brings.
- What if you could say to the women you work with that there is a scientifically studied solution that can buffer them from cancer progression?
- What if you could point women to evidence-based strategies that work, to reduce their psychological distress?
- What if you gave your clients access to tried and tested interventions to help them adapt and cope with their cancer and side effects such as pain and fatigue?
- What if you knew you could steer women towards a proven opportunity to improve their overall quality of life regardless of prognosis?
My Unique Experience
I specialise in working with women with breast cancer.
Since qualifying in 1988 as a social worker, I have specialised in the field of oncology tailoring my knowledge and skills to understand and address the unique set of needs and risks of women with breast cancer.
I have now developed an unparalleled, leading edge method for cancer healing and recovery. A Program that combines my extensive clinical experience, expertise in working with trauma, integrating cutting edge psychotherapy, somatic psychology and the latest neuroscience.
My Approach
My approach provides women with breast cancer the missing piece in their Cancer Health Care Plan for healing and recovery by reducing psychopathology and cancer progression. [research references below].
My program is a carefully curated and contains over 20 years of experience and training about the mind-body connection, based on the latest neuroscience.
Beyond Breast Cancer Blueprint combines my clinical expertise working with trauma with my training in cutting edge psychotherapy models such as Dr Richard Swartz's Internal Family Systems, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and other forms of somatic psychology.
My Interesting Discovery
When I analysed the pre and post measures of women who participated in my Founder Program, I discovered that all participants had significantly increased scores for kindness towards self, otherwise referred to as Self Compassion.
What the research tells us: Self compassion has a protective role for cancer patients.
- Reducing depression, which is linked with cancer progression
- Moderating activation of the hypothalamic – pituitary – adrenal {HPA} which impacts the immune and endocrine systems in the chronic stress response and in depression
- Reducing psychological distress
- Improving overall quality of life
This is an emerging field that has clinical implications for us as practitioners.
Psychoneuroimmunology:
The Link Between Self Compassion & Cancer, and the Clinical Implications for Practitioners
The research consistently points to the link between self compassion - being kind, caring and nurturing to oneself, is a buffer against cancer progression and improves quality of life. Also that women with higher levels of self compassion adapt to and cope better with their cancer.
Breast Cancer, Stress and Trauma...
Research also suggests there are associations between neuroendocrine-immune changes, psychosocial stress and increased risk of cancer (Sephton & Spiegel, 2003). Results indicated a link between stressful or traumatic experiences and more rapid breast cancer progression and the possibility that stressful or trauma events may reduce the capacity of the individual's immune system to resist tumour growth (Palesh et al., 2007) .
Data Analysis of Beyond Breast Cancer Blueprint
Figure 1. Self-Compassion Scores for Beyond Breast Cancer Blueprint 2022
Participants completed the Self Compassion [ Self-Compassion Scale - Short Form (SCS-SF) ] pre and post Program which measures Self-Disparagement and Self-Care.
The results were exciting:
83.3% of participants increased their levels of self-compassion
66.67% more than doubled their scores on completion of the Blueprint.
Is your patient at risk of cancer progression?
Here is a free checklist you can use to identify a patient/client with low levels of self-compassion, which can be an indicator of greater risk of cancer progression. Often women with breast cancer struggle to put themselves and their treatment first, even in a life of death situation, they often continue caretaking for others before their own needs, which can lead to compromised wellbeing, energy depletion and burnout.
- Display feelings of inadequacy
- See their failings as personal [rather than part of the human condition]
- Believe others cope better than they do
- Lack patience and understanding towards themselves
- Tend to be hard on themselves despite what they are going through
- See the worst in situations
- Disapprove of and judge themselves harshly
What Happens Next?
I will make personal contact with the person you refer to and offer them the options below.
My services include:
- 1-1 sessions [subsidised by Medicare in Australia]
- A unique online Self Study Cancer Recovery and Healing Program - Beyond Breast Cancer Blueprint
- The VIP Beyond Breast Cancer Blueprint which is a combination of the online study Program integrated with 1-1 session to achieve better results
- Access to an online community of support facilitated by me with ongoing support and skills training
I look forward to working alongside you to support your patients or clients as they navigate their breast cancer journey. If you have any questions or would like me to provide training for your team, please contact me by clicking on the link below.
Curious? Skeptical?
There's no denying that a both healthy body and mindset is required for lasting wellness. New research on the mind-body connection and the area of psychoneuroimmunology supports the notion that to heal fully, the addressing illness on both a physical and emotional level is likely to produce better outcomes.
If you'd like to hear more about my clinical background or my work, please feel free to reach out via email. While cancer requires a range of treatments, often the stress and grief that a cancer diagnosis can bring is not dealt with, as the patient is focused on physical treatment.
Supporting patients emotionally can make a huge difference, and alleviate a lot of the emotional suffering that cancer can bring up. Head to my client testimonial page to hear from countless women who have worked with me, and the positive impact it had on their overall health and wellbeing...
References
Callewaert DM, Moudgil VK, Radcliff G, Waite R. Hormone specific regulation of natural killer cells by cortisol. Direct inactivation of the cytotoxic function of cloned human NK cells without an effect on cellular proliferation. FEBS Lett. 1991 Jul 8;285(1):108-10. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(91)80736-m. PMID: 2065773.
Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D, Williamson DF, Spitz AM, Edwards V, Koss MP, Marks JS. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Am J Prev Med. 1998 May;14(4):245-58. doi: 10.1016/s0749-3797(98)00017-8. PMID: 9635069.
Pinto-Gouveia J, Duarte C, Matos M, Fráguas S. The protective role of self-compassion in relation to psychopathology symptoms and quality of life in chronic and in cancer patients. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2014 Jul-Aug;21(4):311-23. doi: 10.1002/cpp.1838. Epub 2013 Mar 25. PMID: 23526623.
Reiche EM, Morimoto HK, Nunes SM. Stress and depression-induced immune dysfunction: implications for the development and progression of cancer. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2005 Dec;17(6):515-27. doi: 10.1080/02646830500382102. PMID: 16401550.
Satin JR, Linden W, Phillips MJ. Depression as a predictor of disease progression and mortality in cancer patients: a meta-analysis. Cancer. 2009 Nov 15;115(22):5349-61. doi: 10.1002/cncr.24561. PMID: 19753617
Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D, Williamson DF, Spitz AM, Edwards V, Koss MP, Marks JS. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Am J Prev Med. 1998 May;14(4):245-58. doi: 10.1016/s0749-3797(98)00017-8. PMID: 9635069.
Pinto-Gouveia J, Duarte C, Matos M, Fráguas S. The protective role of self-compassion in relation to psychopathology symptoms and quality of life in chronic and in cancer patients. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2014 Jul-Aug;21(4):311-23. doi: 10.1002/cpp.1838. Epub 2013 Mar 25. PMID: 23526623.
Reiche EM, Morimoto HK, Nunes SM. Stress and depression-induced immune dysfunction: implications for the development and progression of cancer. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2005 Dec;17(6):515-27. doi: 10.1080/02646830500382102. PMID: 16401550.
Satin JR, Linden W, Phillips MJ. Depression as a predictor of disease progression and mortality in cancer patients: a meta-analysis. Cancer. 2009 Nov 15;115(22):5349-61. doi: 10.1002/cncr.24561. PMID: 19753617
Kearney, K. and Hicks, R. (2017) Self-Compassion and Breast Cancer in 23 Cancer Respondents: Is the Way You Relate to Yourself a Factor in Disease Onset and Progress?. Psychology, 8, 14-26. doi: 10.4236/psych.2017.81002.