Stomach Cancer Mind-Body Medicine

Mind-Body Medicine for Stomach Cancer Patients

You may be feeling sad, scared and hopeless if you are facing a stomach cancer diagnosis. At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), we are here for you. Our trained and licensed psychologists or other psychotherapists can help you:

• Deal with emotions
• Regain a positive attitude
• Cope with the psychological and emotional distress brought on by stomach cancer and its treatment

As a patient at one of our cancer hospitals, you can meet with one of these specialists, who are known as mind-body therapists. Your mind-body therapist will offer you emotional/psychiatric counseling, in addition to support groups and therapeutic services, to help you feel emotionally balanced and strong as you undergo stomach cancer treatment.

Cope with Fear, Anxiety, Depression, & Stress During Stomach Cancer Treatment

Counseling, support groups, classes & therapeutic services

Much like the appointments you’ll have with other members of your CTCA care team, you can schedule counseling sessions with your mind-body therapist. He or she will encourage you to express your feelings about anything that’s on your mind. If you want to talk about your diagnosis, treatment, side effects, etc., your mind-body therapist will listen intently. And if you’d like to discuss other things, you can open up and share these thoughts, feelings and concerns too. Some topics you may want to talk about are:

• Relationships with spouses/partners and other family members
• Stress over your job, or loss of ability to work and/or loss of insurance benefits
• Feeling too tired to do the things you used to do
• Worry over the cost of treatments/co-pays, insurance matters and other financial pressures

Your mind-body therapist can help you face fears stomach cancer patients often have, including:

• Fear that treatment will be harsh and have severe side effects
• Fear that treatment won’t work
• Fear the cancer will spread
• Fear of having a feeding tube for nutrition
• Fear of not being able to enjoy foods you used to enjoy

Additionally, your mind-body therapist can help you deal with issues such as:

• Loss of health
• Loss of sleep due to pain
• Loss of interest in physical intimacy
• Loss of socialization with family and friends during meals (i.e., you may eat different foods than before or need to receive nutrition through a feeding tube)

Throughout your counseling sessions, as well as at classes conducted by the mind-body team, you’ll learn coping mechanisms aimed at keeping you calm, strong within and focused. For example, guided imagery and relaxation training can help:

• Decrease your heart rate, muscle tension and anxiety
• Reduce symptoms such as pain, nausea and anxiety
• Improve the quality of your sleep

The array of mind-body medicine classes, support groups and therapeutic services we offer at CTCA includes:

• Support groups for patients and caregivers
• Classes on stress management, relaxation techniques, women’s issues and cancer, and other topics
• Laughter/humor therapy
• Qigong
• Reiki therapy
• Animal-assisted therapy (visits from certified therapy dogs for patients who meet specified health criteria)

Support for Your Caregiver Too

Your caregiver’s psychological and emotional health is also important. We understand he or she may be stressed, worried and overwhelmed. That’s why we extend our mind-body medicine offering to your loved one. Just like you, your caregiver can receive mind-body counseling, participate in support groups and classes, and partake of our mind-body therapeutic services.