Living Beyond Cancer

Doctors Find welcomes Living Beyond Cancer, in North Sydney for all your medical and health care needs, book your appointment today.

Is this you?

You’ve finished your cancer treatment. Everyone’s really happy for you. You know it’s a milestone worth celebrating, but it’s hard to feel excited. You put on a brave, happy face for those that love you. You’re just grateful to be alive.

But deep down, something isn’t quite right. Perhaps it hasn’t been for a while.

You may feel vulnerable and teary. Or tense and angry. Perhaps just plain heavy hearted. Treatment felt like a marathon and you’re beyond exhausted. Your relationships have been affected – some for the better, others not so much. Your body has changed and the way you feel about yourself and the world is different.

Whether it’s been weeks, months or even years since your cancer treatment, the road to recovery has its own unique challenges. Managing your feelings after cancer is a crucial part of being able to move forward into your life.

What can help?

Art Therapy is an evidence based practice that uses the creative process of art making within a counselling relationship, to help you explore your life. I work with individuals, families and groups.

Research has found that art therapy improves quality of life for cancer patients through reductions in symptoms of anxiety, depression and pain.

Art therapy helps you access your emotions and give them shape and form through the creative process. You get to understand your thoughts and feelings in new and empowering ways.

The big benefit of art therapy is that it gives you the tools to express yourself. When you can make sense of your emotions and your experiences it enables you to:

• Get unstuck and move on in your life
  Express your feelings and feel more connected with others
  Alleviate symptoms of depression
  Reduce stress and relax or unwind
  Restore a sense of hope and vitality about the future.

An art therapy session involves guided opportunities to experiment with pastels, collage, paint, clay, or visual journaling. There’s support and encouragement at hand. You DO NOT have to be an artist to benefit. You just need to be willing to be open to trying something new.

Art Therapy is an active therapy. It invites you to be part of a creative process –making something about your life. It can be engaging, satisfying, surprising, and sometimes a big relief! At last, a way to say the things which have been so hard to put into words. Art therapy can release a sense of vigour and possibility for your life after cancer.

With time, that energy begins to make itself known in your day to day life, at work or in your relationships. You’ll begin to spot your own solutions and uncover your strengths and resilience as you manage the ups and downs of recovery.

Most importantly, you’ll get to know yourself as a person who CAN make changes and choices about what matters most in your life.

I’m passionate about facilitating creative and therapeutic processes that help people to see themselves beyond the limits of “cancer patient”. My counselling practice emphasizes a strengths based approach.

I look forward to working with you to help you identify, use and celebrate your unique gifts in order to find meaning, purpose and delight in your life.

If you’re ready to take the next step (OR get the help you need), please contact me on 0416 199 804 or click the ‘Send Email’ button on the right of this page for your FREE 15-minute phone consult to hear about how I can assist you.