Writing in Psychology Today on the 1st October, Dr Molly Castelloe Fong explains the current understanding of the use of psychotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer: “”I am my own inflatable doll,” writes artist and breast cancer survivor Jo Beth Ravitz. Two weeks after her double mastectomy, “110 cc’s of saline went into each breast” during reconstructive surgery with tissue expanders. Ravitz writes in her online journal of how she will miss her nipples.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and studies show group therapy reduces distress, prolongs survival, and improves quality of life. David Spiegel’s landmark research (1989) reported that women with metastatic breast cancer who participated in professionally led support groups lived longer, sometimes by twice as much, compared with those who did not seek this intervention. More recently, Kissane et al. (2007) found that group psychotherapy alleviated depression and improve social functioning.”
Read more here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-me-in-we/201010/breast-cancer-where-words-run-dry
