Healing in the Midst of a Cancer Journey

Each week of this series will explore topics related to the unique and individual challenges associated with a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Whether you are undergoing cancer treatment yourself – or caring for a loved one who is – this series will create space for you to reflect on the impact of this journey on your mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.

This series has been developed with the help of people living with cancer, their caregivers, expert clinicians, mental health professionals, and innovators in whole-person health and wellbeing to make it engaging, interactive, and impactful. Throughout the series, you'll hear from guests who will share resources and interactive practices to improve your wellbeing.

Each session in this series will combine information-sharing, personal reflection, and experiences that will guide you toward new and deeper ways of tending to your wellbeing. We'll explore topics such as mental health and wellbeing, difficult emotions, relationships and community, grief, and tools for healing, such as the power of mindfulness, music, imagery, and nature.

Regardless of where you are on your cancer journey, this series will offer a supportive learning environment and valuable resources to help you along the way. You are not alone on this journey.


Week 1: Impacts of a Cancer Diagnosis

This session will provide an overview of whole person wellbeing, and will introduce mindfulness as a tool for enhancing it. We will also discuss mental health symptoms and diagnoses commonly experienced by people with cancer and their family caregivers. You will have an opportunity to explore and validate your own individual experiences through private reflection, and will receive mental health resources to empower you on your wellbeing journey. 

Week 2: Exploring Difficult Mental & Emotional States 

In our first week, the unique experiences of a cancer journey and the impact it can have on mental health were discussed. This week’s session will dive deeper and explore difficult mental & emotional states associated with a cancer diagnosis. The perspective of the person living with a cancer diagnosis, the perspective of the caregiver, and the shared experience will be explored. 

Week 3: Tools for Healing: Taking a Strengths-Based Approach

The focus of this session is to offer hope and empowerment. We will provide education and resources for taking charge of your journey, regaining your sense of self, and aligning with your purpose. 

Week 4: Grief & Suffering

This session will explore grief, anticipatory grief, and the pain and suffering that they bring. Whether you are grieving a loved one or the life you always imagined, finite and ambiguous loss are two of the most challenging emotional states to live in. They come with a depth of pain and suffering that most of society either does not understand or is not willing to engage in. Finding a safe space for grieving is challenging, but imperative. In addition to exploring grief, we will explore resources for finding this critical support. 

Week 5: Relationships & Community

Receiving a serious diagnosis, or caregiving for someone who has received one, can make you feel exiled from the life you once knew. Finding individuals and communities that honor your lived experience can be very helpful. In this session, the power of relationships and the value of community in healing will be explored. 

Week 6: Tools for Healing: Creating a Path Forward

The focus of the final session is to offer hope and empowerment. We’ll close with mindful intentionality and clarity around the next steps of your healing journey.

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About the Facilitators

Megan smiling at the camera wearing a blazer and button up shirt

Megan E. Voss, DNP, APRN, holds a doctorate of nursing practice with specializations in both integrative and mental health. Dr. Voss has been an oncology nurse for nearly two decades. She is a board certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and has a practice focused on supporting the mental health of individuals with cancer and rare disease diagnoses and their caregivers. Dr. Voss’ research focuses on quality of life in individuals with fanconi anemia, a cancer susceptibility rare disease. She co-created the Taking Charge of Your Survivorship website with the help of individuals and caregivers on a cancer journey.
 

Mary Jo kreitzer smiling with a white backdrop

Mary Jo Kreitzer PhD, RN, FAAN is the founder and director of the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota, where she also serves as a tenured professor in the School of Nursing. She has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of numerous clinical trials focusing on mindfulness meditation with persons with chronic disease including studies focusing on solid organ transplant, cardiovascular disease, chronic insomnia, diabetes, and caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Recent studies include the role of mindfulness in improving human brain-computer interface; the use of social technology to enhance healing and wellbeing; nursing leadership in integrative health and healing; and mindful movement for physical activity and wellbeing in older adults. Dr. Kreitzer earned her doctoral degree in public health focused on health services research, policy and administration, and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing.

In addition, each session will feature experts in a variety of areas.

Logistics

The online sessions are held via the Zoom webinar platform, and participants are off-camera and muted. Sessions are educational with experiential components and time for questions and answers. Please note that registration will close at 1 p.m. Central on the first day of the series to ensure that registrants receive all of the necessary logistical details. Recordings will be made available to registrants for one month, for those who would like to revisit the sessions or who are unable to attend the live sessions.
 

Disability-Related Accommodations and Questions

To make disability-related accommodations or if you have questions about the series, please contact the Bakken Center's community relations office ([email protected], 612-625-8164).