It helps to be able to talk those fears out with someone who is not as emotionally involved. Counseling can help you develop an attitude of health in your battle with the illness. Such positive attitudes have been shown by several researchers, particularly O. Carl Simonton, to have the potential to have a positive impact on the course of your illness. If you attend counseling with a counselor open to spiritual issues, you may be able to address spiritual issues raised by your illness. For example, sometimes when confronted with a life-threatening illness, some persons become concerned about making peace with those from whom they have been alienated.
Counseling can be a great aid in such a process.
Counseling might also be of help in acquiring a degree of assertiveness. This in turn can be helpful in dealing with a medical establishment which does not always listen or provide adequate information to patients. One study compared outcome with medical staff ratings of patient's level of cooperativeness. Finally, persons battling a life-threatening illness sometimes have to adjust to changes in the pattern of relationships in their lives. Counseling can help in this area.