Katherine Froggatt-Ong, Founder at Breast Wise New Zealand, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Ten years ago, I finished breast cancer treatment. My last scan came back clear. My oncologist shook my hand. Friends sent flowers and texts that said, ‘You did it.’
I remember nodding along, because that’s what you do. But underneath it, I felt nothing like myself.
I was exhausted in a way sleep didn’t fix. I startled easily. I didn’t recognise the woman in the mirror. On paper, I was the success story. In reality, I was still trying to find my way back to myself.
No one had a name for what I was going through. The treatment had ended, the appointments had slowed, and everyone around me seemed to assume that life would simply return to normal. But it didn’t. Not quickly. Not cleanly. And for many women, not at all in the way they expect.
Over the past decade, working with hundreds of women navigating life after breast cancer, I’ve seen the same pattern again and again.
There is a gap between finishing treatment and actually feeling ready to live, work, and lead again.
I call it the survivorship gap.
It’s the space where medical treatment is over, but the nervous system is still on high alert. Where the body has changed, the identity has shifted, and the person everyone expects to ‘bounce back’ is still rebuilding from the inside out.
For women returning to work, this gap matters. For HR managers, it matters too. Because return-to-work is not just a logistical process. It is a human one. And if we don’t understand what women are carrying after diagnosis and treatment, we miss the support they actually need.
That is why I built the RISE Method.
What I noticed, again and again, is that the women who made real progress were not doing it randomly. They were moving through a sequence, whether they realised it or not. The order mattered. If one stage was skipped, the next one rarely held.
RISE stands for four stages:
- Recognise. Name what is actually happening: the fear, exhaustion, grief, identity confusion, and pressure to seem “fine.”
- Integrate. Support the body in learning safety again. Treatment does not end the stress response the day the last scan comes back clear.
- Shift. Work through the deeper identity changes and the physical aftermath of treatment, including the impact on metabolism, energy, sleep, and daily functioning.
- Embody. Move from surviving into a steadier, more grounded way of living and working that feels sustainable.
I built RISE because the support I needed did not exist in one place, in one clear framework, at the moment it was needed most.
The RISE Method brings together Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, evidence-based EFT, and a sequential structure designed specifically for cancer survivorship. It treats metabolic health as part of recovery, not a side note. And it moves beyond remission as the finish line, because for many women, remission is not the same as restoration.
Today, I deliver this work through Sovereign Circle, a small group for women moving through these four stages with guidance, structure, and support. It is not a resource library. It is a coached, intentional process built around the order I have seen actually work.
If you work in HR, lead a team, support women returning to work, or know someone who looks ‘back’ on paper but is still rebuilding in real life, I would welcome a conversation.
The survivorship gap is real. And it deserves more than silence.”
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