Counselling and groupwork therapy (cont'd)

Mar 9 and 10 2010, was the last two days of the counselling and groupwork therapy training sessions with 3 doctors and 1 nurse from Vietnam.

We did role-playing of cancer patients and caregivers attending a therapy session.

My persona is the husband of a breast cancer patient. My 'wife' was not keen to continue with chemo as she believed that it was not necessary and was an added suffering. I, 'the husband', wanted her to listen to the doctors and continue with the treatments prescribed.

It was interesting to play the role of someone who is opposed to how I feel about conventional cancer therapies.

I have not attended any counselling session or training before and I am also not very good at role-playing and in a setting like that, and with the facilitator, who is also the trainer actually, playing such a convincingly role, I kept getting my role and my actual self all mixed up.

Towards the end of the session on the 10th of March, we did some sharing of our own experience with cancer. I recalled that when I first suspected and later was diagnosed as having cancer, I had no time for tears, and no time for feeling sorry for myself. I was intently trawlling the internet for information on breast cancer, how best to fight it, the conventional therapies and their side-effects, the questions to ask the doctors, alternative therapies available and what worked.

I recalled that I was pretty much on my own, as those around me did not have the answers I sought. Even if they could not provide me with information, it was consolation to me that they were there for me and provided me with a sounding board when I had information overload.

I recalled that after surgery, I attended a talk for newly diagnosed patients and was very disappointed to find that survivors who were present as support members (I think it was the Breast Cancer Foundation - BCF) were not pro-alternative therapies at all.