Cancer & Guided Imagery: “Holistic Support for The “C” Word”
Most healthy adults feel a sense of dread when they get a routine mammogram or colonoscopy praying that the results are negative for any form of cancer. But those diagnosed with the disease are put into a whirlwind of emotional and physical distress.
Over the last two decades, I have had the honor of working with hundreds of men, women and children with cancer. They are an amazing group of people. Regardless of what stage of disease they are battling, I have found cancer patients particularly open, honest and willing to seek help from others and empowered to help themselves. Of course, at first, they are often understandably down, angry and upset. But what I have found is that after a period of feeling down they often seek out ways to help not only their bodies with traditional medicine and also get help for their emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being.
It is often at this stage that patients seek out guided imagery or other holistic mind quieting techniques. Guided Imagery is a simple but powerful tool. It can be used pre-surgery, during chemotherapy and radiation and after treatment. I have also worked with many caregivers to support them during this trying time as their important roles are also very stressful.
Steering the mind toward what could go right
The first thing guided imagery can do is reduce stress at a time when thoughts race. Instead of focusing on what could go wrong, imagine the healthier focus of an “Immune Journey.” The cancer patient is guided to envision their immune cells- neutrophils, macrophages, T-cells and more leave their bone marrow to lovingly patrol their body – effectively eliminating unwanted cancer cells. Imagine being guided to feel like everything is working perfectly together to help with healing. Great medical care and treatments, moving the body in a joyful way and healthy diet are part of the journey too. Imagine hearing that everything in combination is helping and you begin to see what a wonderful reset this could be.
A custom guided imagery recording can be very beneficial, as well. Details about how your particular treatment works can be included. For instance, if you’re taking a new immunotherapy or targeted therapy drug, a skilled practitioner can guide you to envision it working exactly the way the drug was created. “Know that you are having an amazing response to the drug you are on…this treatment is brilliant…see it shrinking and shrinking the tumors until they are totally gone…”
I had a very remarkable breast cancer patient Mary Kay who came to me for custom guided imagery (over the years we made 3 different recordings to coincide with her changing treatments and circumstances). In addition to guided imagery, I gave her weekly Reiki treatments. She also enjoyed biweekly massages from an oncology trained expert. One day she presented me with the chart below to show me how much adding these therapies into her cancer care meant to her. Notice that all pieces of the pie are the same size. She felt that Integrative Medicine, of which guided imagery was a big part, having a positive outlook, and family and friends were all as equally important as her great medical team and chemotherapy and radiation. It was lovely how she rimmed the entire pie with her spirituality and belief in God. The whole pie ties into her belief in the mind/body/spirit connection and that we need to feed and nurture all three areas when we become ill.
