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The Healing Journey is a well-tested and researched programme that helps people with cancer, and their carers and family members, to improve their quality of life. It does this by teaching approaches which give participants an increased feeling of control over what is happening to them and helps them to relieve the anxiety, depression, fatigue, and other forms of distress that often accompany a cancer diagnosis. It’s also very helpful for the partners of people with cancer and we encourage them to come on the course at the same time. |
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The Healing Journey programme has been refined and improved by Professor Alastair Cunningham in Toronto for over 25 years. The Cancer Resource Centre has been so impressed by the quality of the programme that we have decided to put it on in the UK for the first time ever.
Getting a cancer diagnosis can be a very frightening experience that impacts on many aspects of your life. However there is much you can do by taking an active approach so that you regain a sense of control over your life and can begin to reduce the distressing feelings that often arise from the diagnosis and from living with cancer.
That’s where the Healing Journey programme comes in. It’s a step by step programme teaching self-help methods to enhance well-being, and providing group support. The programme has several levels which build on the new skills acquired.
Level 1 teaches relaxation skills, thought management, how to communicate feelings, mental imaging techniques, and setting goals.
Among the topics covered are:
As part of the course we will give you a free workbook so that you can review everything you learn in your own time and at your own pace.
There are four key techniques taught in the course:
You will be given two CD’s with these exercises on so you can practice them at home.
The course consists of four 90-minute sessions held in the relaxed surroundings of the Cancer Resource Centre.
The content has been developed in Toronto over many years to help participants learn most effectively and to give them momentum as they start their own healing journey.
The facilitators will give presentations on the key ideas and then there will be an opportunity to try out some of the techniques.
Everyone will have a chance to ask questions during the sessions but if you want more personal support, there will be an opportunity to speak individually to the facilitators at the end of each session.
If you haven’t been to a cancer group before, then please don’t worry. It will be a safe and welcoming environment. The emphasis in Level 1 will be on learning new tools rather than discussing people’s experiences of their illness. You won’t be asked to divulge any details that you would rather keep private.
When you are given a diagnosis, the options for enhancing your well-being can seem overwhelming. There are so many books, CD’s, courses and retreats promising so much that it can be hard to decide on an appropriate approach.
Professor Alastair Cunningham has investigated many approaches in his development of the Healing Journey programme. As he has included only the most effective approaches in the programme, it means that you don’t have to waste your time experimenting with different methods that may or may not work.
To help you with further exploration after the course, we will also provide course participants with a short booklist giving our recommendations for reliable resources.
The self-help tools provided by the course and the ways of approaching life that the course encourages helps participants to develop the qualities of authenticity, autonomy and acceptance.
Authenticity is about becoming more authentically yourself so that you are driven less by feelings of anxiety and obligation and instead have a sense of freedom to do the things that reflect a deeper sense of your true personality and who you really are.
Autonomy is about learning to make decisions based on what you believe is right and healing for yourself, rather than about making choices based on the expectations of others.
Acceptance is about learning to accept things as they are rather than fighting to have things the way you want things to be. This does not mean that you become passive, but more that you put your energies into things that can be changed and begin to let go of what you can’t change.
When you begin developing these qualities within yourself, you will start to feel much more in control of your life and to feel a sense of harmony and peace within yourself.
And the emphasis on authenticity and autonomy means that the course isn’t about telling you to do certain things or to believe in particular ideas.
The goal of the programme is to give you a series of options about how to increase your quality of life and how to approach your illness. And then it’s completely up to you to decide what’s best for you and what works for you.
The Healing Journey programme is all about helping participants begin a journey of healing. Healing in this context doesn’t mean a cure although some participants who have continued to the most advanced levels have also lived much longer than expected.
Instead it is about experiencing yourself and the world in a new way, and feeling a greater sense of harmony between all the different parts of yourself.
The purpose of Level 1 is to begin increasing your quality of life. If you are looking for ways to reduce stress and feel more in control of your life, then the course will be of benefit to you.
However if you want to learn additional tools and to integrate the new approaches into your life, Level 2 takes you further. Levels 3 and 4, to be offered later in 2008, enable you to take your healing journey to much greater depth.
The Centre will be putting on the first Level 2 course at the end of February.
There are two main reasons why we encourage partners and other supporters to participate. Firstly, they often feel a great deal of anxiety and distress themselves and the tools given in Level 1 can help anyone reduce their levels of stress and increase their quality of life.
Secondly, when you're trying to introduce changes into your way of life, it’s often easier if you have the co-operation and support of people close to you.
Professor
Alastair Cunningham, who developed
the Healing Journey programme, started as a research immunologist
in the 1960's at the Australian National University.
He then moved to the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto in
1977.
He gained a 2nd PhD in clinical psychology and started conducting group classes and therapy for cancer patients, and then evaluating their effects. The Healing Journey programme arose out of this work.
In 1987 he developed a serious (Stage III) colon cancer and was treated with surgery and chemotherapy. He then went to a retreat centre where, with a group of trainee yoga teachers, he spent 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for 3 months working on his own psychological and spiritual growth.
As his prognosis was only a 1 in 3 chance of long-term survival, he was strongly motivated to find a healing path for himself.
He has published widely having written 3 books and 21 papers and articles in the psycho-oncology field.
Professor Cunningham has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of Canada’s highest civilian honours. The citation described him as "a groundbreaking researcher and a man of immense compassion", "a pioneer and world leader in this field [of psycho-oncology]".
He has been very supportive of our work to introduce the Healing Journey programme into the UK.
The next Level 1 course has not been scheduled yet. Please subscribe to our email newsletter if you would like to be notified of the dates.
In the meantime, you can download the Level 1 workbooks and audios here.
If you have any questions or comments about the Healing Journey, please fill in the form below.
