While treating early and advanced stage cancer patients as an acupuncturist, I began to recognize familiar patterns in their response to treatment and recovery. The assault to their bodies was throwing them into a form of PTSD. During treatment there was little time to process the emotional component of their experience, they were living a “fight or flight” life. People were praising them for bravery and courage, when all they were doing was following a prescription for recovery. They were struggling with pain, hair loss, nausea and fatigue that usually resulted from the treatment and not the disease. The early stage patients were cancer free but being treated for a systemic disease and the later stage patients were living a new life of chronic care.
If they were fortunate enough to be given a clean bill of health after treatment, they were thrown back into a world that had little understanding of what they had been through. Family responsibilities, financial concerns and a desire to go back to where they were prior to diagnosis fueled this battle cry. Few were prepared for the cascade of emotions that followed when they were set free.
It was my job to guide them through this maze. It was a maze that I had maneuvered without a net nine years earlier. In 2009 I began talking with Nancy Allen, Director of weSPARK Cancer Support Center about putting together a workshop that would address these issues. After several false starts I had the good fortune to meet Marie Ritz, LCSW and a joy filled partnership resulted. We were two cancer survivors that were going to grab the bull by the horns and begin showing people a new way to live—Living the New Normal.
Eileen Zegar 2010
My experience working with cancer patients in a clinical and psychological setting yielded similar results to Eileen’s. These findings prompted me to develop a unique clinical program at the weSPARK Cancer Support Center in Sherman Oaks, California.
The weSpark program was one of the first in the country to recognize patient needs based on the differing stages of the cancer journey. During treatment, survival and ritual take center stage as the psyche focuses on what is required. At this time there is minimal space for feelings.
As medical treatment winds down powerful emotions such as anger, grief, fear, loss, depression and anxiety appear almost as a surprise. The patients began to feel that much of what was “normal” and once familiar to them has changed. Their familial relationships, priorities, work and social life have all been affected.
Those with chronic illness need to develop new skill sets as they begin the process of life reflection and managing their emotions through continual medical intervention.
After having met Eileen Zegar, LAC we recognized that our distinctively different disciplines resulted in a unique and synergistic approach to what was clearly a mind-body healing. Together we have created a workshop that not only assists cancer patients in rediscovering their “New Normal” but teaches them how to feel safe in their bodies.
“Living the New Normal” is applicable to anyone whose life has been affected by illness or trauma.
Marie Ritz, 2010