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Support Throughout the Cancer Story
Psychotherapy for medical trauma provides specialized support for individuals coping with the emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Cancer is not only a physical experience—it can overwhelm the nervous system, leading to anxiety, hypervigilance, emotional distress, and fear of recurrence. Therapy helps you process these experiences safely so they no longer feel as intense or all-consuming.
Using evidence-based approaches such as EMDR, CBT, DBT, somatic therapy, and self-compassion practices, psychotherapy supports trauma processing, nervous system regulation, and healthier thinking patterns. It also creates space to work through grief, identity changes, and the uncertainty that often follows cancer. I also incorporate nature-based interventions, offering in-person walk-and-talk therapy in natural settings as well as practical nature-based strategies for online clients to support grounding and regulation between sessions.
Whether you are newly diagnosed, in treatment, or navigating life after cancer, therapy can help you feel more grounded, reduce anxiety, and reconnect with a sense of safety and control.
Approach
My approach to supporting medical trauma after a cancer diagnosis is integrative, addressing the mind, relationships, and nervous system to support full emotional and physiological healing.
Cognitive
Cognitive approaches focus on how thoughts influence emotions and behaviour—especially important after a cancer diagnosis, where fear, uncertainty, and “what if” thinking can become overwhelming. Using CBT and DBT, therapy helps identify unhelpful thought patterns (such as catastrophizing or pressure to “stay positive”) while building more balanced, flexible thinking. These approaches are helpful because they support individuals in managing anxiety, fear of recurrence, and emotional overwhelm while allowing space for both gratitude and distress to coexist.
Relational
Relational approaches focus on your relationship with yourself and others. After cancer, many people experience internal conflict—part of them may feel strong and coping, while another part feels scared, grieving, or exhausted. Therapy helps you understand and support these different “parts” with compassion rather than judgment. It also addresses relational dynamics, such as protecting loved ones or feeling misunderstood. This approach is helpful because it reduces shame, increases emotional integration, and supports a more compassionate, connected sense of self during and after cancer.
Body Work
Cancer and medical treatment can leave the nervous system in a prolonged state of survival. Even after treatment ends, the body may continue to respond as if there is ongoing danger. Body-based approaches focus on regulating the nervous system and processing trauma stored in the body. Through somatic therapy, EMDR, grounding, and breathwork, therapy helps shift the body out of mobilized and immobilized states. This is helpful because it reduces medical anxiety, improves emotional regulation, and allows the body to begin experiencing safety again.