4 minute read
COACHING THROUGH & BEYOND CANCER
COACHING THROUGH
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Coaching is not currently commissioned for patients on the NHS and Fiona Stimson volunteers on a team of coaches who specialise in supporting cancer patients and their families. She is also part of a PhD study being conducted in conjunction with The British Psychological Society to determine cance r coaching standards at The Fountain Centre, a charity within The Royal Surrey Hospital.
A cancer diagnosis Many people describe the experience of learning they have cancer as feeling that their world had stopped in that moment. They describe the ‘petrifying’ fear of not knowing what is going to happen, facing surgery and treatments is ‘traumatising’ and levels of fear & anxiety can hit an all-time high.
Coaching and the cancer journey Coaching helps cancer patients and their families from diagnosis and treatment to living with, and beyond, cancer, including metastatic disease. Coaching aligns holistically with conventional treatment and other therapies to support and empower patients by being heard and understood. It offers time and space for them to express their feelings without judgement or advice, helps them to build strength and courage, to develop a greater understanding of themselves and their situation and create inner resourcefulness and resilience. Patients can feel many things including a loss of control, acceptance difficulty, anxiety, body confidence issues, loss of identity, fear of the future and survivorship guilt. It’s important to simply ‘be’ with whatever comes up during the coaching process and empathy, kindness and compassion are a key part of the process, alongside an appropriate dose of humour.
Positive outcomes through coaching Removing limiting beliefs ‘my mum died of this so I will too’ and similar beliefs can be helped with NLP and other techniques which are used to enable the patient to think and manage in a different, more balanced and positive way.
AND BEYOND CANCER
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly” - Buddha
Reducing Anxiety Understanding and removing negative and unhelpful emotional states, improving mental stability to manage thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviours. Personal Identity Working through grieving for their ‘old self’ and learning to create a new identity with new possibilities.
Body Image Building post-surgery confidence, acceptance and appreciation. Work & Career Supporting clients to work during and post-treatment as well as explore career changes.
Managing Pain Helping clients manage their pain (sensation) and reducing the way they view and experience it. Staying present When facing a diagnosis of cancer and chronic illness, learning to be in the ‘now’ is key to calmness. Becoming immersed in the intensity of what’s going can be detrimental to wellbeing and mental health so learning to relax, breathe & refocusing attention is valuable. The mind/body connection is a powerful one through which spiritual, emotional and behavioural factors can contribute to imbalances in the body and it is important to understand and release these, taking action to reestablish balance, help prevent illness and improve health outcomes.
“When I fi rst met Fiona, I was in pieces. I didn’t have answers to my questions, I was scared, and this was severely affecting my life and ability to cope. Coaching helped me identify my unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and change my thinking to be more positive and empowering. Change was driven by me to stay on my own journey rather than that of others and I’ve re-wired my old unhelpful habits into new, useful ones and built my mental and emotional strength and capabilities. I’m now able to tune into my unconscious mind, listen to it and work with it to overcome situations I fi nd unsettling” Debbie, Breast Cancer patient behaviours and change my thinking to be more
Fiona Stimson is a Certified Personal Performance Coach and Master Practitioner of NLP & Clinical Hypnotherapy. She coaches clients with cancer and chronic illness, their families and NHS Professionals & Leaders. She is training for her Masters in Coaching, works for The Royal Marsden Cancer Centre and runs her business at The Surrey Psychology Practice. Fiona is an Associate for Working with Cancer, a social enterprise working with those impacted by Cancer and a finalist for the International NLP Awards in the healthcare category.
