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Below is an article by a Centre user who was helped by both counselling and healing.
Cancer is not selective; it can happen to anyone. But it isn't only the person with the disease that suffers. It touches the lives of everyone and leaves many confused and contradictory feelings and thoughts in its wake.
My own story is not unique but, by telling it, it may be possible to give some measure of comfort and hope to others in a similar plight.
My father had always been a vital and strong man, and had had to be, raising three sons on his own after the breakdown of his marriage. It was almost inconceivable that he could be sick - he often claimed to have never suffered from colds.
Yet he became ill and, after various biopsies and tests, was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. He underwent chemotherapy, radium treatment and operations and he suffered in his own quiet, strong way. Shielding his loved ones from the pain, he tried to protect us, all the while knowing he was not going to recover.
On my last visit to see him in Liverpool, I knew what was happening but found myself swinging from denial to depression, unable to grasp the magnitude of the events in my life.
At this time I heard of the Centre and arranged an appointment. Unfortunately at the very time I thought I had found a lifeline to help me in my sea of troubles, things took a turn for the very worst.
On the day I was due to have my initial appointment, my father died. I spent the next week in the cotton wool of my family, insulated in our common pain while the formalities of cremation were observed. However, in my heart I knew that life goes on and that I had to face the world as my father would have wanted. If I hadn't coped previously, then it was worse now and I desperately needed help. I returned to London, made another appointment at the Centre and met the Senior Counsellor. I talked her ears off, and organised a series of counselling and Reiki sessions.
In the weeks afterwards my time spent at the Centre was a blessing and helped me to turn my life around. The twin-pronged approach of conscious discussion in the counselling and the Reiki healing seemed to complement each other. They were pivotal in my coming to terms with my father's death and all the unresolved issues attached to it.
I find it hard to express the gratitude or measure the debt I feel I owe to the counsellor, healer, and the rest of the staff at the Centre. I arrived for my first sessions like a man in pieces but was not judged or patronised or treated like a leper because of my loss.
Through my time at the Centre I realised many things and, with the support and encouragement of all of the staff, this has carried me through the darkest days of my life.
Some four months on I have now finished my counselling but still go for Reiki sessions. I look back at the trauma of this time and wonder how on earth I would have coped without the support of the Centre. I feel humbled and very mortal in the wake of my father's death.
But I am bolstered by the knowledge that an organisation like the Centre exists and is there to extend the love and warmth of humanity to all whose lives have been touched by cancer.