Sarah shares her personal experience of breast cancer and the Acceptance & Commitment Therapy skills she utilised to manage her feelings.
Dr Sarah Swan, clinical psychologist, shares her personal experience of breast cancer and the Acceptance & Commitment Therapy skills that she utilised to manage the feelings she experienced, using non-pathologising and non-medical language. This workshop will be helpful for anyone facing cancer or supporting someone with cancer.
Workshop Synopsis:
Coping with the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of breast cancer is not an easy process. Even for someone who has dedicated their working life to supporting people with emotional distress. When clinical psychologist, Dr Sarah Swan, was diagnosed with the illness in 2019, she was surprised and disappointed by how little her emotional wellbeing was enquired about by her treatment team. When she did open up to them, she felt judged for the distress she was feeling. As a psychologist she understood that her emotional responses were a normal part of facing an illness that was potentially life threatening and that low mood, fears for the future and body image concerns were to be expected. She therefore wrote a book on the subject, sharing her skills as a clinical psychologist, using the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model, to help others to navigate this difficult emotional journey. In this workshop, Sarah will share her experiences and talk about the psychological skills she found most helpful, using non-pathologising language and talking in non-medical terms. It will be helpful for anyone facing cancer or supporting someone with cancer.