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A New Weapon in the Fight Against
the Emotional Aspects of Cancer
Co-author
of Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul®
helps cancer patients cope with the anxiety of treatment in her newly-released
book, My Healing Companion.
Author Beverly Katherine Kirkhart
learned she had breast cancer in 1993, given a 40% chance to live, she
became consumed with rage and anxiety. Kirkhart searched for ways to survive
her challenge while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.
She found as a support to medical treatments, her greatest resource for turning this setback into a comeback was writing daily in journal – which became the inspiration behind her recent book, My Healing Companion.
Based on Kirkhart’s belief that it’s how we look at our challenges and tragedies that determines how we come through them, My Healing Companion, is filled with healing exercises and questions that stimulate deep thoughtful responses. Documenting her own experience of coping, adjusting and turning cancer into a positive force in her life, inspires the user to understand they are not alone and that they can have a meaningful life during and after cancer. Within the pages of My Healing Companion, readers have ample writing space to record their feelings and fears during the journey into self-realization and empowerment that can ultimately lead to serenity and survival.
New Research supports Kirkhart’s convictions that writing is a beneficial resource to aid in the fight against major diseases such as cancer.
Once dismissed as irrelevant to the treatment process, a number of university studies have concluded that writing and other forms of self-expression are critical to the psychological needs of those suffering from physical ailments, including cancer.
Research in this area began in the mid-1970s,
pioneered by James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at
the University of Texas at Austin. In his ground-breaking book, Opening
Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions, Pennebaker concluded:
“Excessive holding back of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can
place people at risk for both major and minor diseases.
Recently, several major research projects
have drawn similar conclusions.
| · “….early-stage breast cancer patients who were randomly assigned to write from three perspectives about the disease, those expressing their deepest thoughts and feelings reported significantly decreased physical symptoms. As well, the group assigned to write positive thoughts and feelings regarding their experience had significantly fewer medical appointments for cancer-related morbidities.” |
~ October 2002 issue
of The Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annette L. Stanton, Ph.D, of the University of Kansas in Lawrence http://www.jco.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/20/4160 |
| “….patients whose friends and family were unsupportive, experienced increasing distress over time unless they were assigned to the expressive writing task….These findings are important because friends and family are not always available to provide support or may not feel comfortable in dealing with cancer.” |
~Sandra G. Zakowski,
Ph.D., The Finch University of Health Sciences/ The Chicago Medical School http://www.psychosomatic.org/press_releases/annual/2002/034.html |
| “….our recent experiments have shown that expressive writing may provide a safe haven for disclosure and appears to have robust effects on many health-related outcomes.” |
~ Stephen Lepore,
Ph.D. University of California, Irvine http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/userhome/psych/slepore/ |
Promoting their philosophy of treating cancer with care, and leading the trend of medical professionals regarding the importance of the psychological well-being of cancer patients, Roche Pharmaceuticals acquired 75,000 copies of Kirkhart’s book, My Healing Companion, for distribution free to cancer patients at oncology centers around the country.
Roche
has initiated and sponsored a series of educational events around the
nation, featuring Kirkhart as a trainer, inspirational speaker and guest
author – including book signing at the Oncology Nurses Society Congress
in Washington, D.C., keynote address at the Florida chapter of ONS and
‘training the trainer’ sessions for medical professionals
at John Hopkins (Baltimore, MD) and in Dallas, Denver and Chicago, as
well as other ci ties.
In the US alone, more than 3,000 people each day are diagnosed with cancer. Their lives are altered and faced with the emotional day-to-day challenges of this disease. As Dr. James W. Pennebaker, an expert in the field of the healing power of expressive writing notes, “Among those who have been diagnosed with cancer, putting thoughts and feelings into words can be healing on many levels. Beverly Katherine Kirkhart’s beautiful book, ‘My Healing Companion,’ offers a number of ways to begin your writing journey. The book is sensitive, thoughtful, and smart – an excellent introduction to journaling for people coping with cancer.”
Linda Ellerbee, in the foreword, says: “…. My Healing Companion is not only a useful tool, it comes from someone who’s been there, done that, and lived to tell the tale. Moreover, she’s taken those experiences and put them together in this journal in such a way as to help you get to the heart of your own emotions.”
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