The Healing Way, A Journal for Cancer Survivors
The idea for The Healing Way coalesced from different experiences in my life. I am an Aries, a person of action, yet I watched helplessly as my father died of brain cancer. More recently, I witnessed a close friend with cancer suffer through aggressive chemotherapy and radiation.From my own healing experience as a personal essay writer and from my perspective as a teacher of personal essay writing for many years, I realized that cancer patients everywhere could benefit from writing about their experiences. When I learned about the Pennebaker studies that showed how writing deep thoughts and feelings about stressful events could help people heal emotionally as well as physically, I knew I was on the right track. Many medical and mental health professionals educated me about the psychosocial issues of cancer patients and helped me fine tune the book.I lead Writing About Cancer and Writing for Personal Caregivers workshops at cancer hospitals and online at my web site, Writing to Heal, Writing to Grow. Participants in my courses have expressed gratitude for the opportunity to write on the topics, which I take from The Healing Way, because their writing helps them heal deep emotional wounds, even years after they have been in remission.