Can the Trauma of Cancer Ever Heal?
From diagnosis to treatment and survivorship, facing cancer means addressing more than just the physical burden of medical treatment.
It often means experiencing mental and emotional distress.
Call it Trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); many patients struggle to shake off all this turmoil after treatment ends. They seek support as they work to define their new ‘normal’ – and wonder if their Trauma will never truly heal.
Facing an illness such as cancer is complicated. Our unique life experiences, medical history, and biology, mean this simple question has no simple answer.
How can cancer cause Trauma or PTSD?
Even though more patients survive cancer today than at any other time in history, mortality is still a possible outcome. Cancer, therefore, is still associated with a death sentence. Receiving a life-threatening diagnosis can be a catalyst for an existential crisis and cause a great deal of pain, fear, helplessness, and hopelessness.
Any of the items below can be the cause of Trauma or PTSD:
Learning you have cancer
Waiting for test or scan results
Receiving upsetting test results
Extended hospital stays or treatments
Follow-up visits with your doctor/hospital
Cancer recurrence or fear of its return
As a cancer and trauma recovery coach, I aim to help my clients address the nonphysical aspects of their illnesses. There are several ways to accomplish this.
The first is to use tools like Hypnotherapy to resolve the mental and psychological patterns research has indicated inhibit the body’s immune response, such as stress, helplessness, and hopelessness.
The second is to help them restore their sense of self, regain trust in their bodies, become more resilient, and cultivate a powerful mindset and identity as survivors and thrivers.
How Can Trauma or PTSD be Resolved?
If you’re like many of my clients, you’re likely familiar with the mainstream approach to healing Trauma, which includes psychological counseling, medication, support groups, etc. These strategies are valuable, and I hope you get something out of them.
If you tried those but didn’t get the results you were hoping for, it might be because none of the above strategies address the root of the problem. Talk therapy and group therapy depend on communication i.e. your conscious mind and thought process. That’s the domain of your conscious mind, the logical and rational part of your mind.
Emotions, however, stem from the other part of our mind, called the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is our emotional mind. It’s also the part of the mind that governs many bodily functions, like digestion or body temperature. In part, the subconscious mind also influences the functioning of our immune system.
Clinical Hypnotherapy for Emotional Relief.
Psychotherapy primarily engages the conscious mind; Hypnotherapy primarily engages the subconscious mind. It can offer faster and more significant relief from emotional Trauma and PTSD.
As a cancer and trauma recovery coach, the closest to a clear-cut answer I can offer is that we may not entirely resolve our challenges, but we can become “larger” than them.
