San Diego Therapist Blog: Regina Huelsenbeck, PhD

After surviving or while living with a life threatening illness such as cancer, people typically feel estranged from life (work, friends, colleagues, family members, and even alienated from themselves). 

This disconnected feeling is normal. Cancer is a traumatic experience: one which stirs questions about some of the most foundational elements of life: things that most of us take for granted: namely one's body and continued existence.

How can we re-connect? How can we come back to life- feel connected to things and others again?

The first step begins with reconnecting to yourself. Believe it or not, almost everything we experience in relationship to others is fundamentally nurtured by the relationship we hold with ourself.

A simple way to strengthen the connection and intimacy with yourself is through telling your story. Buy a journal and begin at the beginning. Begin to write down the bones of your story-- and do not leave one little thing out- this is for you. Scribble onto the paper, write with abandon, without censor, tell her everything. Allow the paper to feel what you truly experienced. 

When you are done writing down your cancer story, you can continue with this tool and use it to befriend yourself each day, for the rest of your life story.  

Connecting back into life and with others will be less of an ordeal when you aren't afraid of what is hiding inside of you.

Warmly,

Regina

 CHECK OUT THIS BOOK: "Writing down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg