Cancer Care and Support, Family Issues Acceptance & Commitment Therapy

Cancer Care and Support, Family Issues

Cancer care and support is essential after receiving a diagnosis. Someone who has just received a devastating diagnosis is bound to experience strong emotions and they may or may not be open to talking to friends or family. This can affect interpersonal relationships, as everyone around might feel afraid, directionless, numb and shocked.  A person who has been diagnosed with cancer can find inner strength to face the road ahead by speaking to a counsellor who has experience with cancer.

People with cancer often try to be strong for their loved ones, despite the fear they themselves face. At the same time, relatives tend to be afraid of expressing their own thoughts and feelings. The load can be minimized for both the cancer patient and his or her family by speaking to a psychologist.

The general consensus is that a positive attitude is essential for fighting cancer, and while that is a great tool, it can do more harm than good. It implies that people who lose the battle against cancer were negative. Unfortunately, the positive attitude analogy leaves no room for exploring anxiety and fear, or the grief commonly associated with a diagnosis.

A psychologist or counsellor who is knowledgeable about cancer care and support is the partner of choice for people who have been diagnosed with cancer, as well as for their friends and family. The therapist will help people to understand the impacts of a cancer diagnosis and the treatments. A psychologist will ensure that you have all the emotional tools required to handle the challenges on the road to recovery.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers cancer care and support therapy to address your emotional issues related to cancer, you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Family and Systemic Psychotherapy uses the close interpersonal relationships between family members to help one another. The key to dealing with family issues is to help couples, family members or siblings to explore difficult emotions and thoughts in a safe manner. It helps each member to understand and acknowledge one another's emotions and allow them to express it safely, and in an effective manner.

Family therapy has been shown to be effective for people of all ages who are experiencing family issues or problems in their key systems (relationships) with people with whom they are close. It helps to build relationships and boosts the strengths and self-esteem of everyone in the system. Your family might need intervention if members have substance abuse problems, violent outbursts, if the family experienced a trauma,  if a close family member died or if the family is not functioning at its normal capacity.

This type of therapy enables people to work with one another, instead of on one another and enables families to talk about issues that are causing distress without disrespecting emotions. Instead, it invites engagement of the family members in order to support recovery.

Therapists who address family issues use a range of different approaches to bring about the best results. While group therapy will probably take place once weekly, where the family will all meet with the therapist, individual sessions might be required too. This provides a great supplement to the  family therapy work and is an ideal place for individuals to express their personal family issues that are hard to discuss in front of everyone.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who does family counselling you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy encompasses a range of six principles that aim to help clients develop greater psychological flexibility. The six principles include:

1. Cognitive defusion help to reduce tendencies to regard thoughts, memories and emotions as real and concrete events.

2. Acceptance is about allowing the thoughts to surface and pass without the need to allow them to interfere with daily life.

3.  Being present means being aware of current existence and being involved with the now.

4. Self observation helps the client to be aware of the self and the unchanging consciousness.

5. Exploring values to discover those that are most important to the person.

6. Committed action involves setting goals based on the explored values, and setting actions in place to reach those goals.

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy and is commonly used in therapy, and in it's sub-forms and helpful for a range of conditions, including OCD. If you require Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, have a look at the counsellors listed below.

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Megan Hughes

M.A., Registered Psychology Assistant
*Now offering video and phone sessions.* *My practice is currently accepting new clients, to book please email/call: info@stillwatercounselling.com / 604-734-2779.* Megan Hughes has been counselling in... Read more