Counseling and Family CARE

Learning you have cancer, or that someone you love has cancer, is a difficult experience.  For many people, taking the time to process new thoughts, feelings and health concerns is an important part of adjusting to the experience of living with a cancer diagnosis.

Cancer CAREpoint offers individual, couple, and family counseling sessions with licensed therapists to provide cancer patients, survivors, family members and caregivers with the personalized support they need. The approach in these sessions is strengths-based: drawing on the resources and abilities that clients already have as well as identifying new resources to address the issues currently being experienced, and goal-oriented: thinking about how to address future needs throughout treatment and beyond.

Counseling is offered on a short-term basis, but if the client(s) and counselor identify a need for long-term therapeutic support the client(s) will be supported in locating and connecting with therapists in the community.

Examples of what might be discussed or offered in sessions:

• Strategies for speaking with the medical team: getting comfortable with being assertive about patient and caregiver needs, learning more about the treatment plan and prognosis, addressing side effects
• Processing and psychoeducation: healthy ways to cope with changes, why and how experiences affect everyone differently, processing experiences and how they are affecting daily life
• Resource navigation: communicating and navigating new organizations and systems of care, exploring the benefits of referrals offered by the medical team or other providers, ways to request referrals or explore other care needs

Gain support and develop tools to navigate a cancer diagnosis in the family. These sessions are available to families with children over the age of 12, who are coping with a parent or guardian’s cancer diagnosis. Goals for these sessions can include:

• Improving communication
• Building coping skills
• Having open dialogues around changes in expectations, routines, and responsibilities

Individual counseling is available to those that have lost a loved one to cancer. Counseling is offered on a short-term basis, but if the client(s) and therapist identify a need for long-term therapeutic support the client(s) will be supported in locating and connecting with therapists in the community.