Re-creating your life: a spiritual/psychotherapeutic intervention for people diagnosed with cancer

This paper describes a pilot psychotherapy program for people who have experienced cancer that integrates spiritual issues and resources. The name of the program is: Re-Creating Your Life: During and After Cancer. The literature suggests that people experiencing cancer wrestle with existential concerns related to control, identity, relationships, and meaning. For spiritually oriented people, religious and spiritual issues are likely to be embedded in these existential concerns. Moreover, spiritual resources are likely to play a role in resolving these issues. This seems even more likely given the body of research suggesting that spirituality and religion play a helpful role when people face a traumatic life event. The few studies that have examined the importance of religious variables for people experiencing cancer have found that this is also true for this population. Thus, a psychotherapeutic program for persons diagnosed with cancer might be more efficacious if it integrated spiritual issues and resources. This paper describes a treatment program oriented towards this goal and presents rationales for the interventions that are included in the therapy process. The program addresses the four existential concerns listed above, in ways that integrate spiritual issues and assist participants in drawing on spiritual resources. An outcome study is currently underway to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. Ten participants have participated, results are promising, and will be published when data collection is completed.