Jennifer Bires, Executive Director of Inova Peterson Life with Cancer, shared on LinkedIn:
“Day one at the Society for Integrative Oncology conference, and I already love this year’s theme: Cultivating Community and Belonging in Integrative Oncology.
I am increasingly convinced that community and belonging are a salve to suffering. And in cancer care, where so much of the experience can feel isolating, creating opportunities for people to feel seen, understood, and less alone is important.
Tiffany Carson, gave an incredible keynote to kick us off and asked an important question: Do the recommendations we make actually fit the realities of people’s lives?
What good is a recommendation if someone can’t access it? One of the most important things she said was that:
Education does not equal access.
I was also proud to see Inova Health Peterson Life with Cancer represented with two posters today. Kim Lowery Walker, MBA, LCSW-C and Jenna Sangastiano presented preliminary findings from a self-compassion program they developed for people impacted by cancer with a 96% completion rate in their first cohort.
Learning to meet yourself with less judgment and more kindness in the middle of illness, uncertainty, and change is hard work but can lead to meaningful change, and I can’t think of two more compassionate clinicians to teach it.
I was also excited to present our IMPACT study protocol for group-based psilocybin-assisted therapy for caregivers of individuals with advanced cancer. It struck me that both posters are centered around group interventions.
Cancer can be incredibly isolating for patients and for the people who care for them. There is something powerful about bringing people together who don’t need an explanation for why this is hard.
A pretty fitting way to start a conference centered on community and belonging.”
