Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery: A Step-by-Step MBSR Approach to Help You Cope with Treatment and Reclaim Your Life

A Mind-Body Approach to Healing

If you have received a cancer diagnosis, you know that the hundreds of questions and concerns you have about what's to come can be as stressful as the cancer treatment itself. But research shows that if you mentally prepare yourself to handle cancer treatment by getting stress and anxiety under control, you can improve your quality of life and become an active participant in your own recovery.

Created by leading psychologists specializing in oncology, the Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery program is based on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a therapeutic combination of mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga now offered to cancer survivors and their loved ones in hundreds of medical centers, hospitals, and clinics worldwide. Let this book be your guide as you let go of fear and focus on getting well.

With this eight-week program, you'll learn to: • Use proven MBSR skills during your treatment and recovery
• Boost your immune function through meditation and healing yoga
• Calm feelings of fear, uncertainty, and lack of control
• Mindfully manage difficult symptoms and side effects
• Discover your own capacity for healing and thriving after adversity

Linda E. Carlson, Ph.D., R.Psych., holds the Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology, has won an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Health Scholar award, and is associate professor in psychosocial oncology at the University of Calgary. She is director of psychosocial oncology research and works as a clinical psychologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, Canada. Carlson is coauthor of The Art and Science of Mindfulness and has published over ninety book chapters and research papers in peer-reviewed journals. She regularly presents her work at international conferences.

Michael Speca, Psy.D., R.Psych., is adjunct associate professor of psychosocial oncology at the University of Calgary and a former Canadian Cancer Society post-doctoral fellow at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. As a clinical psychologist at the Centre, he counsels cancer patients and their families, facilitates a range of group support programs, and cofounded the Centre's popular Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery program.

Foreword writer Zindel Segal, Ph.D., is the Morgan Firestone Chair in Psychotherapy and professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also director of the cognitive behavioral therapy unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He is coauthor of The Mindful Way Through Depression and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. He continues to advocate for the relevance of mindfulness-based clinical care in psychiatry and mental health.