Introduction
Back in the 1990s there was an increasing focus was on how to live well after an experience of cancer, as the treatment improved and increasing numbers of people were surviving after a diagnosis of cancer. Dr Peter Harvey (Consultant Clinical Psychologist, working in Birmingham and then Leeds) was invited to give a talk in 1999 at the National Conference of Cancer Self-Helps Groups and from here he refined and expanded his work on this important area. Just after he retired in 2007, Peter spent six months updating with work with the help of Dr Jane Clark, another Clinical Psychologist. This was published on the Cancer Counselling Trust’s website in 2004.
Dr Jane Clark is now a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Leeds:
“I have had the privilege of working with people who have or have had cancer for nearly twenty years. I originally trained in Hull and worked with Professor Lesley Walker, who pioneered the idea of cancer drop-in centres to provide emotional support to those going through treatment. After qualifying, I moved to work in Leeds and have worked at the Cancer Centre in Leeds since 2004. I have been able to listen and help people to make sense of their experiences and emotions both during and after treatment for cancer.
Everyone’s story is different but there are some common themes in the distress and the process of adjustment that people experience. I have noticed that when people share their experiences, it helps them to understand that they are not alone and they feel validated in their emotional responses. This has become increasingly common with the advent of blogs and the development of the supportive cancer community.
There are now so many voices of experience from the cancer community that I sometimes wonder if there is still place for a psychologist to provide a perspective. But I think that we can provide some understanding of the range of experiences, as we speak to so many different people, and we can provide a perspective from the field of psychology in understanding reactions to trauma and adjustment after significant life events.
I hope that this series of articles will help by summarising some of the key emotional and psychological experiences and providing a psychological perspective on them. The transcripts from the talks that Peter gave have been shared widely and various forms can be found all over the internet.
Many, many people have found his work to be helpful so Sara – the founder of Ticking Off Breast Cancer – and I wanted to refresh the information and make it accessible and relevant to people today trying to move on the from experience of cancer. Many of the words are still Peter’s original work. He has given his consent and support to this refreshed version. We both really hope this is helpful and useful to you.”
This series of articles
The series of articles is designed to help you deal with some of these demands and pressures, to guide you and support you. How you use it is entirely up to you. It has been divided up into easily digestible chunks so that you can take things at your own pace and follow things up in a way that suits you.
You do not need to read all of this at once. You can take it one step at a time depending on how you feel. Because it has been designed to be read in independent parts you may find some repetition – this is unavoidable as these issues overlap and inter-twine.