Audio recording

Presenter: Holly Forester-Miller, PhD & Charles Srodes, MD

This workshop is designed for advanced practitioners who work with cancer patients or wish to start working with this population. It will be an interactive, hands-on workshop. We will discuss the patients varying needs at different points in their cancer journey and during various treatments. Participants will learn how they can assist cancer patients with using hypnosis for managing the issues, symptoms, and challenges they face. Additionally, the presenters will outline the protocol for a 4 week long self-hypnosis training group for cancer patients that they offer at Duke University Hospitals. The participants will learn 3 self-hypnosis techniques that are taught to the group participants which they can quickly and easily teach to their patients. The presenters will discuss the use of language, especially as it relates to the potential side effects and symptoms of the patient's chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery treatments. They will also demonstrate how they teach this to group participants.

Additional issues that will be addressed include resistance, referrals, informed consent, and reframing. We will discuss the applications of various hypnotic phenomena with cancer patients. Participants will have the opportunity to interact and participate in several experiential exercises dispersed throughout the workshop. The presenters will share from their 50+ years of experience of integrating hypnosis in their work with cancer patients. The major emphasis will be on providing specific how-tos in formulating techniques for working with cancer patients that participants can take back and use in their practices.