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EFT for cancer patients

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for Cancer Patients

Emotional Freedom Technique

The emotional Freedom Technique is a form of complementary intervention. Though relatively new, it has gained recognition from many clinicians and has been endorsed by prominent figures in the realm of alternative medicine, such as Deepak Chopra. EFT can be applied to many different ills and challenges, but for cancer patients, it offers a practical and effective way to engage in their own care before, during, and after their medical treatment.

emotional freedom technique for cancer

What is EFT?

EFT is a form of “emotional acupuncture” or “mindful acupressure” that involves the stimulation of traditional Chinese acupuncture points. However, unlike acupuncture, instead of using needles, EFT uses a technique of gentle tapping on these points.

If you have been diagnosed with cancer, currently undergoing treatment, or even in remission and simply want to maintain your state of well-being, EFT may be the right choice of practice for you.  Not only is it easy to learn and easy to practice, but it often packs significant results; you can now learn how to practice it online from the comfort of your own home.

How does it work?

In EFT, we use our fingertips to systematically tap on various acupressure points on the face, hands, and body while focusing on a problem or issue we wish to resolve. EFT also uses verbalization. It involves verbalizing the “issue” combined with a phrase of affirmation. Together the verbalization and tapping seem to release the intensity or charge of the “issue” we tap on.

The Mind Body connection

It is no secret that our body, mind, and emotions are intimately connected. Beyond the physical symptoms of the illness, being diagnosed or undergoing treatment raises a host of emotions and thoughts, like fear and anxiety for example, which oftentimes affect the way we feel in our bodies. When we apply EFT to something that upsets us – our thoughts, our feelings, and our bodily responses seem to shift. In other words, EFT allows us to release and transform the way feelings like guilt, fear, or anger may be affecting our bodies and our health.

EFT lets us take part and ownership of our healing journey. It will help us cope with and overcome fear, anxiety, guilt, blame, and shame. It will help us ease physical discomfort and lessen the impact of treatment side effects. It empowers us to maintain a positive mindset.

Practicing EFT for Cancer online

EFT for Cancer sessions are conducted via a simple webcam (video camera for computers). We interact face-to-face as if you were right here in my office.  In this series of three sessions, you will learn the ABCs of the Emotional Freedom Technique for Cancer and its application. EFT for Cancer is different from EFT for behavior modification or addictions. While the core principles are still valid, illnesses such as cancer require a deeper understanding of what you are going through and what you need to heal.

Here is what you get when you sign up

1. Three one-hour private sessions.
2. Your complete guide to Emotional Freedom Technique for Cancer.
3. The essence of EFT, the Discovery Statement.
4. EFT basic and advanced training, including unique tools for cancer patients.
5. How to formulate EFT phrases and apply them to your particular diagnosis/condition.
6. Understanding common psychological inhibitors (self-sabotage) and how this impedes healing.
7. How to identify different “aspects” of problems and what to do when aspects shift.
8. Advance EFT techniques such as the Movie Technique and Chasing the Pain.
9. Expert tips and support based on years of experience.

A video of your session

At the end of our session, you will get a short video of our meeting. This will act as a reminder when you practice on your own. Also, as an active client, you get a preference in scheduling over new clients. This privilege is available for one year after our initial meeting.

If this entices you to take action, contact me, and I’ll be sure to provide you with all the necessary details and answer any questions you may have.

 

Cope with a Cancer Diagnosis

How to Cope with the Shock of Cancer Diagnosis?

Hearing these three words “you have cancer” is frightening. Until that moment you have been someone’s mother or a father, someone’s son or daughter; and now all that has changed, you became a cancer patient.

cancer diagnosis shockThe nature of any change, especially one as overwhelming and even debilitating as a cancer diagnosis strike fear and terror into our hears. There is so much to consider and so much of it is unknown. Yet you push through it because you can and you must.

Taking Back Control

If you are like many of my clients, you also look for means and ways to regain control over your life. Knowing that in doing so you state your intention to take back your life and thrive for many years to come is empowering. But often I see my clients set themselves up for failure, setting unrealistic expectation about their treatment and how exactly it should go.

Whether we like it or not we are not a machine that operates on some rigid mathematical formula or code, we are humans. And as humans we are vulnerable and yes, imperfect.

Part of what defines us as human-beings is that we are emotional beings, capable of expression. Fear, stress, frustration and helplessness are but a few of these expressions and we should try to feel them and release them rather than holding them in or denying their presence.

To that end I’ve created a new audio recording titled Overcome The Shock of Cancer Diagnosis. Many of my clients find it helpful and you might as well. It’s available in my Shop area if this resonate, but for the time being and from a mind-body perspective, what you need to know is that suppressed and unresolved emotional turmoil, compounded over the years, build an internal pressure. Any illness, including cancer, can be aggravated by this internal pressure. So, what do we do? How can someone maintain his or her quality of life while undergoing treatment or recovering from it?

It is likely that upon receiving your diagnosis you also received information pertained to local resources i.e. access to a Social Worker, a list of support groups etc. Take advantage of these resources! While you may not use all of them or any of them for that matter, simply knowing this is available to you will help you feel more grounded and not alone. Not all medical facilities are alike and not every resource may be right for you but you can learn a great deal from others experience.

Making a Decision

Having said that, I want to focus on what you can do for yourself.

There is no way around cancer; that is, the only way out is in. What I mean by that is you must give yourself time to process the meaning of this new reality. You must take time to consider that challenges ahead and resolve to meet them with courage.

More important than your support system is your decision to see this journey through. This decision will prove invaluable and will provide you the strength you need. And by all means, remember that your so called “human weakness” i.e. your emotions is your source of power. A hero is not someone who is never afraid but rather someone who does what he or she needs to do despite of their fear.

From a practical stand point, there are different means and ways beside your medical treatment to help you and support you in this time of need. Immersive Healing is but one option though it may not be for everyone. If you have a question or simply need someone to help you think through your options; I am happy to do so at Free@AvinoamLerner.com.

You can also take advantage of my 6 Weeks Online Program titled Cancer Wellness Mastery which will afford you new skills and a way to connect with others in your position.

I look forward to connecting with you and engaging with you for better days.

with joy, Avinoam Lerner

Complementary Alternative Cancer treatments

Complementary Alternative Cancer Treatments, are they Effective?

At the end of a recent presentation a man approached me with this question. His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and she wanted to know what else, beside conventional medical treatment she can possibly do.

Complementary Alternative Cancer treatmentsHe was eager to learn about complementary or non-medical approaches to healing cancer but he was church going person and was concerned about the use of hypnosis. Like many, him and his wife held all sorts of misconceptions about hypnosis. In fact, if it weren’t for their doctor mentioning my name they would never think to attend my lecture.

The short answer to his question about the merit of Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) for cancer is a resounding YES. Having said that not all CAM for cancer are alike. There are as many methods out there as they are practitioners, but if you are looking for a form of treatment that is considered evidence-based you will find a short list.

This is not to say that research equal effectiveness, far from it. If we keep in mind that what we call evidence-based today was at one point the subject of mockery we must consider there are methods of healing we did not yet discover or researched. Evidence-based simply means there was sufficient interest in one method to the point that funds could be raised to explore it through the tools of science.

Though the medical field has long recognized the benefits of Hypnotherapy, the topic is still poorly understood and certainly under utilized. The British approved the use of hypnosis back in 1955, even the Pope and Roam Catholic Church approved its use in 1956 and last but not least it was approved in the US in 1958.  Still we find its use limited in medical facilities.

In my little corner of the universe this is about to change. From May 2013 patients of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute who visit the Zakim Center for Integrative Care will be able to benefit from hypnosis for cancer. The Zakim Center already offers its patients a wide spectrum of evidence-based practices. Practices such as Acupuncture, Chi Kong and oncology massage have long been researched and the data is promising. Listening to patients testimonials, I for one am very grateful that we live in a day and age where patients can benefit from this union of medical and non-medical methods.

To find the right CAM practice for you, first define the end result you are looking for. This end result can be pain relief or lessening side effects, immune enhancement etc. Done right, this will allow you to narrow your search. And yes, talk to your medical team about your wish to integrate non-medical methods into your cancer care, their answer might pleasantly surprise you.

 

surgery guided imagery

Cancer Patients Undergoing Surgery use Guided Imagery and Hypnosis for Successful Outcome

For many cancer patients, the very thought of having surgery produces anxiety and fear and worry tend to consume our attention. Apart from worrying about potential complications, surgery, even a “minor” one disrupt our lives and means “down  time” for recovery.
hypnosis for Cancer Surgery

Numerous studies confirm that using hypnosis in a clinical setting, and more specifically during and after surgery is beneficial. These studies led many medical facilities and even the all skeptical insurance companies to embrace the use of a short hypnotic intervention for patients as part of their strategy for well being.

One such study followed a group of people who underwent hypnosis, including self-hypnosis, for a period of 15-minutes before their surgery. The results of this study were fascinating to say the least; those using hypnosis and self-hypnosis needed less anesthesia, experienced a lesser degree of blood loss (i.e. their bodies were able to cope with the trauma of surgery more effectively), were found to heal at a faster rate and were able to leave hospital earlier than those in the control group who didn’t use any form of hypnosis.

As this study suggests, hypnosis play a vital role when it comes to mentally preparing a person for cancer surgery. Hypnosis for surgery conditions and prepares the mind for the successful procedure. It also helps to lessen a person’s feelings of anticipatory anxiety and the effects of the physical trauma of surgery on the body. What’s more it can help speed up the rate of recovery. If you are like many of my clients, recovering within the familiar environment of home is preferable to recovery time spent within the clinical environment of a hospital.

Interestingly, I recently treated a client that was scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy – a procedure that is known to be of some discomfort. The client came to see me a day before the biopsy and we worked for an hour and a half. I also gave him a guided imagery CD for Surgery After the treatment had taken place, the client reported back to me and told me that this was the fastest treatment he had ever experienced. Not only did he find the treatment to be fast, he also reported feeling significantly less pain and felt that he recovered at a much faster rate than usual.

From this we learn that hypnosis is not only beneficial in helping a person to prepare for and manage cancer surgery, it can also help you to prepare for and cope with any procedure involving physical discomfort that is needed as part of your overall medical treatment plan.

If you are scheduled to undergo surgery in the near future and wish to be pro-active, feel and be more in control of your journey and mentally prepared consider using hypnosis for surgery. One option available to you is Immersive Healing which utilizes hypnotherapy as its therapeutic vehicle. Immersive Healing can help you improve your odds for a successful outcome and it can be practiced either face to face (in office) or online via Skype.

cancer-hypnosis

What is the Difference between Immersive Healing and Hypnosis for Cancer?

Hypnosis has long been an ally in the fight against, and the healing of cancer. For the most part it was utilized as a therapeutic intervention for treatment side effects. Common uses of hypnosis in cancer treatment were to speed recovery from surgery and ease physical discomfort and emotional distress which is part and parcel of conventional treatments.
alternative cancer hypnosis
So what is the difference between this type of hypnosis for cancer and Immersive Healing? To explain this difference think about a general medical practitioner such as your primary care physician and a specialist like an oncologist. Your PCP is well educated and skilled but he or she is trained to diagnose and prescribe medication. He or she can properly direct you when needed to a specialist of a particular field who has greater skill in that field.

Immersive Healing utilize and an advanced hypnotic protocol called Regression to Cause. This is a specialized protocol that requires a certain level of experience and knowledge. It demands the facilitator will harbor certain qualities and abilities that are not taught in regular hypnosis courses like intuition, the ability to work with and contain immense emotions that are being released etc. This qualities and abilities are not something that can be acquired easily; they must be built into the personality of the facilitator, hard wired if you will.

Furthermore, Regression to Cause as structured in Immersive Healing is a very active or dynamic technique which demands the client be active, part of the process and involved in his or her own experience. Generally speaking, in other hypnotic protocols the client is more passive i.e. he is absorbing rather than letting out.

The more general type of hypnosis, the type which you might be familiar with, uses a hypnotic technique that is known as Direct Suggestion. In this type of practice the client is led into a hypnotic state; once in this state of mind, the therapist embeds positive suggestions and affirmations into the client’s subconscious mind, with the aim of producing more desirable patterns of thought and behavior.

Direct suggestion hypnosis can be extremely effective when carried out by an experienced hypnotherapist. It is especially effective for those who wish to overcome a fear or phobia, or to give up a bad habit like smoking. It has more to do with changing behavioral patterns and thoughts patterns than healing illness. It is not what it was designed to do.

When we are dealing with cancer we need to pull out all the stops; we need to use the most powerful weapon we possibly can in order to fight the illness. I believe that the hypnotic protocol of Regression to Cause is this weapon. It allows us to access the deepest layers of the Subconscious Mind; where the seed planting of the illness is found. By healing the cause i.e. the Mind, we ultimately can heal its effect, the Body.

By identifying, addressing and healing the Subconscious Mind patterns that weighed heavy on the innate immune system and produced the conditions where cancer can develop we eliminate the energy that feed the cancer and kick start the dormant immune response. With a fortified immune system and greater resolve to heal all forms of medical interventions will preform their healing better. This in turn increase your odds for recovery.

which Alternative Cancer Treatment

Which Complementary or Alternative Cancer Treatment is Right for You?

Boston Clinical Hypnosis. Many of my clients researched variety of complementary or alternative cancer treatments before they’ve learned about Immersive Healing. Rightfully so, they wanted to know which type of treatment is right for them. When they first contacted me for more information I offered the following advice.
holistic cancer therapyI invited them to first define what it is that they wanted; or expected from their treatment (beyond the obvious that it should be effective. A practical way to do this is to ask yourself a few questions.

You can begin by asking yourself about the kind of support you are looking for. Is it physical support? Emotional support? Or even support on a spiritual level?

If you are seeking support for your body i.e. you want to gain strength and have more energy consider seeing a nutritional practitioner or a Naturopath Doctor. They can help you work out a dietary plan and supplements that will provide you with optimum levels of nutrition, cleanse your blood and improve your overall physical experience.

If you are seeking psychological support to strengthen your resolve to heal and manage feelings that naturally accompany the cancer such as fear, anxiety and even shame consider seeing a psychotherapist. He or she can provide you the tools to better cope with the onslaught of emotions and feelings cancer arise.

If you are however seeking to increase your odds for recovery and the effectiveness of your medial treatment you must go beyond the Conscious Mind into the Operating System of your being i.e. the Subconscious Mind. if this is is your intention, consider Immersive Healing. Immersive Healing let you become an active participant in your own healing.
Immersive Healing works in the realm of the subconscious level. Its therapeutic process is designed to let you identify, resolve and, ultimately, heal the root cause of the illness, the mental seed of cancer. Immersive Healing cleanse the Mind by eliminating erroneous perceptions and harmful mental patterns that produced the conditions for the development of cancer in the first place. It rewrites your subconscious programming so it can produce new and better results i.e. health instead of illness.

Some of my clients are seeking a deeper spiritual understanding of themselves. This in my view is a part of the healing process, though you need not be a religious person per se to truly benefit and heal. You can gain great strength simply by contemplating and discovering a deeper meaning in your illness and in your life. If spirituality is what you seek and you are a religious person approach your priest, your minister, your rabbi etc. and draw strength from their wisdom. If you are not a religious person find the practitioner that resonate with you the most and draw your strength from them.

The simple answer to the above question is that you can benefit from working or being supported on several levels. Look for that which resonate with you the most and trust your gut feeling. If the temptation arise to do what other did, remember that we are all unique. Each individual needs to find the type of therapy that works best for them and fits with their own particular belief system.

complementary and alternative cancer care

4 Top Benefits of Complementary Cancer Treatment

I am often asked about the benefits one can expect from complementary cancer treatment, so below I have listed what I consider to be the four top benefits.
alternative cancer treatment
1. Feeling empowered: Taking part in the decision making process of your health care plan and being an active participant in your healing is empowering. It takes you from a passive mode to an active mode, and helps you to feel that you are back in the driving seat when it comes to your health. While your medical care team is doing all that they can do, you can feel that you too are playing a part in the process and doing all that you can possibly do to create the best environment within your body for healing to take place.

2. The human connection: When you work with a practitioner of complementary alternative medicine, certainly when working with me, you get a more personalized one-to-one connection. You get more than just the few minutes allocated to you by your doctor; with me you get at least an hour and a half. Being rushed and having to wait for doctors to show up, for test results and all that is in between can make a person feel as if he or she is just their illness.

3. Safe, non-invasive treatment: Immersive Healing offers a safe, non-invasive and drugless process of healing. It can be practiced in conjunction with conventional medical care. Results can be felt in ‘real time’, meaning that they are felt as they occur, first in the Mind and then in the body. There is no need to spend time in hospital, no need to worry about dependency or side effects from medication and no downtime spent in recovering from treatment. These aspects of the treatment are very important because at a time when your body is being overloaded with medical treatment, drugs, hospital stays and recovery time etc. the last thing that you need is to add more of the same.

4. A holistic approach to illness: When you use alternative cancer treatments you get support on all levels, by this I mean that your emotional and spiritual well-being is acknowledged and addressed. Some types of complementary alternative therapies also address the physical dimension (for example those that focus on health through nutrition) and, of course, hypnosis works with the mind-body connection, where the aim is to enable the physical body to follow the healing that takes place in the mind. Without disrespecting to the amazing work that your medical team is doing, it has to be said that medical professionals are trained to treat the disease and not the whole person. In my office I offer a more holistic approach, treating the whole person and not just their illness.

Complementary Alternative Cancer Practitioner

What to Ask Your Complementary Alternative Cancer Practitioner?

If you are considering consulting a complementary alternative practitioner to help support you through the process of healing from cancer, there are certain, important questions that you must ask.
alternative cancer treatment
Researching and questioning a practitioner is important because you need to be sure that you will be safe and that the practitioner’s work will serve as a complement to the medical treatment you are receiving as part of your conventional medical care. It is vital that you find a type of complementary alternative treatment that supplements and complements, rather than opposes, all the good work that is being done by your medical treatment.

If a complementary alternative practitioner advises you to discontinue your medical treatment and to use only alternative methods, this is a red flag. I would strongly advise that you to discard this advice and look elsewhere for support.

Very often, the best possible outcome for people with cancer, or any other chronic illness, is achieved by integrating both conventional medical treatments and alternative treatments. In doing so, you are supported on all levels – you have all your bases covered so to speak. Your medical team is working to heal you on the physical level and your complementary alternative practitioner is working to support you on an emotional and spiritual level.

Another important question you might want to ask is about the scientific evidence that validates the type of treatment they offer. Ask for research and scientific studies in their field so that you can be sure that you aren’t going to be wasting your time.

The type of healing I offer, Immersive Healing, is firmly grounded in the science of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI); you can find plenty information about PNI online. If you wish, I can provide more information and point you in the right direction.

Finally, I think another important question to ask any complementary alternative practitioner you may be considering consulting is what experience they have with cancer and cancer patients.
Cancer patients have very specific emotional and psychological needs that differ greatly from the needs of someone who wants to overcome an addiction or who wants to lose weight. Illness such as cancer bring with it a whole spectrum of emotions, concerns and fears so it is very important for you to find out if the practitioner you are considering consulting has knowledge of cancer and experience with cancer patients.

cancer patients support Boston ma

Why Cancer Patients Seek Support Outside Hospital Walls?

According to a recent study, more and more cancer patients seek help, in the form of complementary alternative medicine outside of the hospital walls. Their reason quite simply is that ‘life’ goes on outside of the hospital; they feel more associated with health rather than illness.

This is in no way a form of silent criticism or a display of dissatisfaction with the medical establishment. The medical team is trained to treat the body and the disease, the actual cancer itself. While this is, of course, vital to patient’s recovery it does leave a huge gap when it comes to how they feel mentally and emotionally about illness.

Many people with cancer don’t want to feel that cancer defines them; that the cancer is all that they are. A person with cancer is still, first and foremost, a human being – a living, breathing person with thoughts, feelings and emotions, a person who has a life to live.

Time spent within the hospital walls, even when absolutely necessary may leave you feeling isolated and separated from reality. As we all know, ‘life’ continues to happen outside of the operation room and the chemo suite. Furthermore, there is so much more to cancer than what your doctor can see – cancer is much more than the tumor that your doctor can see, touch and remove.

A holistic approach to healing cancer means facilitating healing on a range of levels. It is given that we must treat the physical dimension of the illness but we must also treat the emotional and spiritual dimensions.

With this combined approach – i.e. using a powerful combination of traditional medicine and Mind-Body Medicine in the form of Immersive Healing – you give yourself the best possible chance to heal because you are engaging the illness from every angle.

Generally speaking, complementary alternative therapies can empower you and help you maintain a positive frame of mind before, during and after medical treatment. They can give you the strength, both emotionally and physically, to help you carry on with your everyday life feeling as well as is possible. They can also help a person make the shift from worry and fear into comfort and confidence. They help you avoid the mind trap of feeling like a victim, i.e. feeling helpless and hopeless and inspire you to take action and follow through on your medical regiment.

In short, when you spend a great deal of time within hospital walls your overall quality of life is affected. Seeking help outside the hospital environment help patient’s enhance their quality of life.

guided imagery cancer

Is Guided Imagery for Cancer Right for You?

In previous posts we explored the promise of hypnotherapy for treating and healing cancer. But what if you are unable to attend regular hypnosis sessions because you don’t feel well enough to do so, or because you an experienced hypnotherapist or for any other reason?

guided imagery cancer If this is the case for you, the next best thing you can do, as an alternative to face-to-face treatment, is to listen to an audio program such as my Guided Imagery for Cancer CD. There is an assortment of audio programs available online from many different practitioners, but as you’ll find out, not all products are equally effective.

Before you choose which one is right for you, listen to a sample of it. Do you like the voice, tempo and even accent of this practitioner? Hmmm…

For me it was important to produce a highly professional product with recording studio quality. It was also important for me it will be easy to follow the guided meditation. I infused the audio with powerful suggestions, imagery and metaphors to calm your Mind, sooth your body and help you heal from within.

The beauty of an audio program is that you can listen to it as often as you like so it’s very cost effective. Whether you listen to it while waiting for your doctor appointments, whale watching or before you go so sleep you will surly benefit.
It combines imagery, sensory awareness and auto-suggestions to engage your imagination and Mind. These techniques share some qualities and blend very well together. It is this combination that helps you to become immersed, and therefore fully involved, in a healing experience. It what helps you to shift your focus and attention from whatever emotions you are going through – be that fear, stress, hopelessness or rage to calmness and hopefulness.

The CD can also be used during any procedures you are having for cancer, such as chemotherapy. Listening to the CD during a procedure can help you to shift your attention from the clinical external environment to an inner positive and desirable one. The metaphors, mental images and suggestions used in this CD help your mind to create a better experience within yourself, which is important because we know that the mental images we hold within our minds have an effect on our bodies – for better or for worse.

A prime example of this is worry; when we worry about things that haven’t happened; we play out different scenarios in our mind. These scenarios affect us even though they are just imagined; the more we worry the worse we feel. If we want to empower ourselves and create the optimum conditions for healing within our bodies, it is important for us to have a tool that we can use to help ourselves – a tool that can help us to create better, more positive state of Mind.

hypnosis for chemotherapy, cancer cdMy CD, The Healing Power of Your Mind: Guided Imagery for Cancer does this and also helps you to drift off into a sound a peaceful sleep that will leave you feeling refreshed when you wake in the morning. Healthy sleep patterns are crucial when it comes to healing the mind and body but can be difficult to achieve when we are feeling worried, stressed or afraid because of illness.

If you are interested in the concept of Immersive Healing but are unable to attend sessions with me, you may find my Guided Imagery CD helpful during your own healing journey.