About Cancer Support
Compassionate listening and loving speech are the foundations for our practice together in the Cancer Support Group. By listening deeply to our fellow participants we are offering them a gift of true love. We offer our love and support as other people speak and they offer us support as we speak. Together we face the trials and joys of living with cancer.
Living with cancer or supporting a loved one through their journey can be an emotional roller coaster. It’s during these times that having a supportive community to lean on can make all the difference. Our online Cancer Support Group offers a safe and nurturing space for individuals affected by cancer to come together, share experiences, and find strength in community. Led by Jerome Freedman, PhD an experienced facilitator, our group sessions are held weekly on Zoom, providing a platform for connection, understanding, and healing.
Weekly Sessions
During these weekly sessions, we will explore the 7 Strategies that I developed over 45 years of healing my cancer and supporting my son to heal his cancer. These principles have guided my healing journey and provided necessary support at times of great suffering. To see how this worked for my son, watch the video at https://2wellbeing.org/our-story.
Strategies
Here are the 7 Strategies:
- BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE: Take a stand and be in control of your healing
experience. Don’t just roll over and let the medical establishment run over you. - INVESTIGATE ALTERNATIVES: There is a magical world of alternative therapies that will further your healing and give you a sense of well-being on your journey to wellness.
- MAKE HEALTH-PROMOTING LIFESTYLE CHANGES: These will include your opting for healthy dietary choices and energizing exercises.
- PRACTICE DAILY MEDITATION: Tune into yourself to discover your body sensations, thoughts, and feelings and develop your intuition.
- CREATE YOUR OWN MEDICAL TEAM: Look for experts who know both Eastern and Western methods so that you can get the widest range of medical support.
- REACH OUT TO OTHERS: Ask your family and friends for support and join a support group to share your healing challenges and experiences.
- GIVE BACK: When you are ready, you will find joy and meaning in helping other people and giving back to your community.
These 7 Strategies map nicely into Dr. Kelly Turner’s 10 factors that radical remission survivors have used to heal completely from cancer. These factors include Strong Reasons to LIve, Spirituality, Intuition, Exercise, Empowerment, Increasing Positive Emotions, Diet Change, Herbs and Supplements, Social Support and Releasing Suppressed Emotions. We will learn a lot from Kelly’s research which has been clinically validates in several research studies. I completed training with her in the latter part of 2023 to be certified as a “Radical Remission Health Coach”. She had this to say about my book, Healing Cancer with Your Mind: 7 Strategies to Help YOU Survive (https://mountainsangha.org/healing-cancer-mind/):
“Dr. Freedman speaks from experience, both as a cancer survivor himself, and the father of a Radical Remission cancer survivor. His book, “Healing Cancer with Your Mind” gives readers a nurturing, helping hand throughout the entire cancer journey, especially with regard to developing a meditation practice. –Kelly Turner, PhD, Author of the NYTimes Bestseller “Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds”
Topics of Well-Being
Even though our cancer journeys are filled with pain, anxiety, fear, anger, aversion and worry about the future, it is important to take a time out from our suffering to enjoy the wonders of life. We can learn to practice loving kindness for ourselves and other even as we navigate the challenges of cancer together. We can develop compassion for ourselves and our loved ones who are taking care of us to foster empathy and understanding, and a sense of connection and support within the group.
We must find some moments joy and celebration in our lives amidst the journey, recognizing and appreciating the resilience within each individual. This is an important factor in our healing journeys to find moments of peace and strength within ourselves.
For me, it is important to practice gratitude for the present moment and the support system surrounding each individual, promoting a positive mindset and emotional well-being. I think of a minimum of three things, events or people each night before I go to sleep. This makes for a peaceful sleep most of the time and sleep is very important for cancer recovery. It also helps us to foster forgiveness and let go of resentment, promoting inner peace and healing for ourselves and others.
Group Agreements
Our meetings will all be on Zoom and will last for one hour. We hold these agreements to be sacred:
- Speak from your heart and your own experience
- Be respectful of all views, even those you do not agree with or personally relate to
- Keep confidential all personal information in this group
- Practice non-harming by using wise and skillful speech
- Hold this space for mutual learning and exchange and not for the purposes of self-promotion unless it is of benefit to the group
- Share concisely so that others may share
- Refrain from cross talk and giving advice unless asked for
- Remain silent if that is what you need at the moment
Sessions
You will be notified by email the day before a meeting of the Zoom link for the next day. Note that they will usually be the same each week but not necessarily.
We will hold two basic types of sessions. The first session of the month will be an orientation session for new people if any. The second type of session is what we might call a normal session. It consists of the following segments, not necessarily in the following order:
- Welcome and check ins
- Topic: 7 principles or 10 factors or well-being
- Table talk (Break out rooms)
- Group discussion
- Sharing the merits and inviting the bell
We use “table talk” so that each participant that wanted to would have a chance to share. In a larger of approximately 12 or more people, it may be difficult to give each person a chance to share.
Occasionally, we will deviate from either of the typical sessions to present new material such as advances in certain types of cancer, new research findings and other factors that affect the group.
Register Now
Ready? Let’s begin by signing up for the Cancer Support Group!
If you still have questions about our Cancer Support Group, please don’t hesitate to send an email to jerome@2wellbeing.org with the subject line “Cancer Support Group”.