Lockey Maisonneuve, a breast cancer survivor and cancer exercise specialist, will discuss the importance of exercise in moving on from patient to survivor. Her rehabilitative exercise classes have gotten hundreds of women moving again after cancer treatments (including me!) She and her MovingOn program were featured in a recent Cancer Warriors Wednesday post.
Robin Adwar, life coach of SoundBoard Consulting Group, will guide you with The Wheel of Life Tool. This powerful tool will help you create balance in every area of your life based on your individual circumstances by translating vision into action.
I will discuss how cancer survivors can loosen cancer’s emotional grip and begin to heal emotionally by using the Gifts and Losses List, a process of introspection and honest personal evaluation. Participants will create their own Gifts and Losses list as a visual reminder of their new “normal” beyond cancer and share personal stories of cancer’s gifts and losses with other survivors.
The symposium will be held at St. Peter’s University Hospital, 254 Easton Ave., New Brunswick, NJ, (Center for Ambulatory Resources, 3rd Floor Conference Room), on Saturday, January 21, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A light lunch will be served and there is no cost for attending. This promises to be a popular program, so register soon. Call St. Peters at 1-732-846-3300, ext. 227 or contact me via email today.
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Where We Go Now 
Comments
Cancer survivorship is not just about saving a life
It is great to see that the state of being a cancer survivor is being looked at in a new way. While it is necessary to do what we can to help and support cancer patients at the time of diagnosis and treatment, we also need to support patients when treatment ends. It is no longer just about saving a life, it is now about the quality of that life for the longer term. That quality of life includes such issues as risk of recurrence, fertility difficulties, premature menopause, emotional distress, fatigue and cognitive problems. I am sure you will give a wonderful presentation Debbie..I only wish I could be there!
Bringing Light Into The Abyss
Marie:
You’re so right about survival being about so much more than just saving a life. So many cancer survivors walk out of treatment and into an abyss of uncertainty. Thanks for your support and you will be with me in spirit I am sure!
Survival > Existence,
Debbie
Casual Friday
Such an important topic, survivorship. You will be fantastic Debbie, would love to be there! xo
Thanks Elyn!
Elyn:
Thanks for the kind words, Elyn. I wish you could be there too. It’s always a very moving experience to meet with other survivors and talk about the subject of survivorship.
Survival > Existence,
Debbie
LYLAC; Live Your Life AfterCancer
Hi Debbie,
Interesting you noticed and put survivorship on the radar to help other people with your seminar. Survivorship is BIG at the moment in the UK (where I’m based) and an army of people, groups, committees and organisations are all involved.
E,g, see this: http://www.ncsi.org.uk/ The National Cancer Survivorship Initiative.
We’re all becoming aware that it’s simply not over once you finished your cancer treatment; it’s just the beginning of “something else”. As there is no support programme in the UK that focus on this phase I started LYLAC (Live Your Life After Cancer), together with a GP. We’re both cancer survivors and qualified Life Coaches. We use life coaching (plus CBT, NLP, mindfulness and more) to help cancer survivors rebuilding their lives after cancer and making a plan for the future. The wheel of life is a good starting point for this. You might notice that completing the wheel of life is very difficult for cancer survivors as most are still in sort of “limbo”; they’re not the person anymore as before diagnosis and neither the person they are becoming….. I’m curious to hear your experience.
I was intrigued to read that you have invited a life coach to your seminar as I’m convinced life coached can play a crucial role in helping people moving forward post treatment, to boost self-esteem, give control over their lives again and . We are collecting evidence for this (see http://lylac.net/research.html) and the first results are overwhelming!
Keep going what your doing! This is very much needed!
If you need any support from me, let me know.
Isabel van der Ven
Co-founder LYLAC
Balance is the Key
Hi Isabel:
Survivorship really is the new frontier in cancer management and I’m so glad to be a survivor helping other survivors navigate the waters. What I like about the Wheel of Life is the ability to focus on what is out of balance in your life and attend to it, one step at a time. It can be so overwhelming trying to get your life back together as a survivor. The Wheel helps separate out the pieces, thus making you feel a little more in control of the process.
Keep up the good work and thanks so much for your comment. Hope to see you back at WWGN soon. I’m sure you have a lot to contribute to other survivors.
Survival > Existence,
Debbie