Cancer therapy deals with stress, emotions

Breast cancer took Norma Lynn Higgins captive in 2000, abducting her thoughts and controlling her every move. After a year of battling the disease, she finally escaped from its merciless grip.

Higgins should have embraced the freedom — no more surgeries, chemotherapy sessions or radiation treatments; no more days wasted in waiting rooms or calling upon friends to pick up her kids from school.

Instead, she overflowed with fear.

"I felt scared and alone," said Higgins, a psychotherapist who lives in Mount Pleasant. "Everyone was in celebration mode for me, but I felt helpless. I kept wondering what if they didn't get it all, or what if there are still some cancer cells hiding."

Higgins knew she needed help dealing with the aftermath of cancer, so in 2001 she signed up for a free therapeutic program called Expressions of Healing at the Roper St. Francis Cancer Center.

S.C. Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth created the eight-week program in 1997 to help cancer patients, survivors and loved ones cope with their emotions and stress through the creation of art and poetry. Ten years later, Expressions of Healing, which began a new session last week, remains an alternative approach to healing at the Cancer Center.

It's very common when cancer patients finish their treatment to feel lost or depressed, Wentworth said. "When they're getting treatment, they're consciously taking action, doing something, taking control. When the treatment stops, it's like falling off a cliff."

That's where Expressions of Healing steps in.

The eight-week series of workshops, which requires no experience with art or poetry, is a way for cancer patients to remain active and in control of the healing process.

"It's not about some great painting or poem," Wentworth said. "It's about what happens during healing while you're creating the art."

For the past five years, Wentworth has taught the workshops with art therapist Nancy Hackard, who leads the visual arts portion of the program.

Although Wentworth and Hackard direct the workshops, they are not teaching poetry and art but facilitating expression and healing.

"It's like pitching an idea," Hackard said "We just get the process started, and the patient interprets the task the way they want to."

Higgins said the classes gave her the freedom to express emotions she didn't otherwise feel comfortable sharing. She said during her treatment she wanted to remain optimistic and strong at all times and wanted everyone around her to do the same.

"We just didn't go there with the scary part or deep, dark feelings," she said. "They needed to be dealt with, though, and the classes were a place to do that."

Creative therapies such as Expressions of Healing are vital in creating a comprehensive cancer center because healing involves the body, mind and spirit, said Elizabeth McCaleb, an oncology social worker with Roper St. Francis.

The workshops are as much about offering a support system as they are about offering a forum for healing through creative release.

Expressions of Healing is a safe environment for people affected by cancer to meet and communicate with each other, Wentworth said.

A few years ago, three middle-age women in the same stage of breast cancer went through the program. They shared tips on what not to eat, the most helpful Web sites to visit and the best wig shops in town, Wentworth recalled. They didn't know each other before attending Expressions of Healing but were best friends by the end of the course.

"The classes were really very helpful emotionally," said Higgins, who's been in remission for two years. "In a way, they managed to make healing fun and gave me an opportunity to engage with other people who were in the same boat."

Higgins doesn't keep in touch with anyone who went through Expressions of Healing with her, but the program remains a part of her daily life.

"The classes really got me into writing," she said, "and I've kept a journal to help sort through my thoughts ever since."

Reach Abi Nicholas at 937-5581 or anicholas@postandcourier.com.

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