What Cancer Coaching Is

You are looking for a way to make sense out of this experience, how to manage the challenges you face, how to regain the sense of control that was stripped away from you, and how to bring greater clarity and meaning to your life.

Here are some of the changes you can expect through coaching:

► Regained sense of control in your life as you take an active role in your treatment and recovery.

► Increased knowledge of your disease, treatment options, recovery, side effects, and what you can expect to happen along the way. Learn how to choose and work with healthcare professionals, advocates and community support.

► Increased energy, improved nutritional health and mental focus will be paramount.  We provide you with a functional nutritional food plan and a supplemental strategy to complement your chemo, radiation and surgery.   You will learn biofeedback methods to effect calm, release stress and to balance the body for healing.

► Improved communication with loved ones, friends, co-workers, and your medical professionals.

► Discovery of your personal strengths. Sometimes it takes a crisis before we learn the truth about our capabilities. Reap the rewards of your unexpected powers as you become aware that you are stronger, more courageous and more capable than you ever imagined.

► Reconnection with who you are as a man or woman as you...

• redefine sexuality, masculinity/femininity and attractiveness
• look inward to determine your life goals
• come to grips with your mortality
• and dare to live your dreams.

Dealing with cancer is hard, but you will learn that you are a survivor - courageous, strong and capable. As you gather information, make informed choices, accept your feelings, learn how to communicate, and reach out to others for support, you will regain a sense of control and begin your recovery from the ordeal of cancer.

About Cancer Support Coaching

You can get your life back while dealing with cancer. As you deal with cancer, you face numerous difficult challenges. However, surviving cancer can also be a triumphant life experience that has the potential for improving the quality of your life. Right now, though, it may be difficult for you to see any positive effects of your experience.

The coaching process will help you move beyond your confusion and feelings of fear and overwhelm. You will regain your self-confidence, stability, and a sense of being back in control of your life.

The key concept of individual coaching is the personal attention paid to you by the coach. I will provide for you a non-judgmental, confidential, safe environment where you will feel free to explore any area of your experience with cancer. My focus will be completely on you and what your needs are at any given moment. As your coach, I will be your personal support, advocate, partner, mentor, cheering squad, sounding board, nutritionist, educator and strategist.  NOTHING YOU SAY TO ME WILL LEAVE THIS OFFICE

Benefits of Coaching

Some of the benefits you can expect to experience from the process of coaching:

·         Action and results – Without action, results cannot occur. What you need right now is immediate relief from your most troubling worries and needs. At the beginning of each session, we will determine what your most pressing needs are and work out a plan to provide relief.

·         Preparation for treatment – researching and understanding your particular type of cancer and your treatment options; locating and organizing your personal health, medical, and insurance records; finding and assembling your health care team; making lists of questions to ask your doctors; locating additional resources.

·         Getting through the experience – preparing for treatment; knowing what to expect before and after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation; managing the activities of daily living that will have to continue throughout treatment; asking for and accepting help from others; learning new skills that will help you cope.

·         Improved communication with loved ones, family, friends, and co-workers – who, when and how much to tell those affected by your diagnosis and treatment; how to talk to your children; how to tactfully turn down well-intentioned but misguided attention; talking with your spouse or significant other about matters of intimacy, personal identity, and changes in your body.

·         Identifying and expressing the vast array of emotions that are integral to the experience of dealing with cancer. Sometimes we have to "stuff" our emotions just so we can get through the day, or the hour. As your coach, I will provide a safe environment for you to examine and fully express your feelings.

·         Recognizing and accepting changes in your health and outlook on life – adjusting to physical changes in your body that occur as a result of surgery and other treatments; exploring changes in how you think, feel, and behave; clarifying your life priorities, values, and goals; evaluating and establishing your dietary and nutritional needs, designing environments to enhance your physical, emotional and spiritual wellness.

Some lifelong benefits of coaching are:

·         Reestablishing feelings of self-worth, confidence, and strength.

·         Reconnection to your core self.

·         Becoming more assertive.

·         Regaining your sense of power and control, in all areas of your life.

·         Enjoying a sense of mastery and accomplishment in your life.

What Cancer Coaching is Not

Cancer Coaching is not psychotherapy, medical counseling or medical advice. Therapy and counseling typically focus on past events with an emphasis on exploring and processing feelings. Medical advice requires the skills of a trained medical doctor to assess one's medical health and wellness options from the standpoint of disease processes. Coaching is oriented more towards action regarding lifestyle issues and focuses more on education.

Cancer coaching is not about providing medical advice. I am not a medical doctor and I will not offer treatment suggestions or advice. We do provide a session by Oncology Interactive™ educating you on your disease, however this session has been provided by over 300 medical oncologists worldwide.  We can certainly discuss treatment options and make lists of questions to ask your doctors. However, decisions about your treatment will be made between you and your health care professionals.

Coaching Is Not A Substitute For Professional Medical Care

►How I Work

I believe knowledge is a powerful tool. Being informed about your disease, treatment options and expectations empower you to take control of the process, which will affect your recovery and personal experience.

I believe you can use the experience to make positive changes in the quality of your life. It may be difficult to imagine that anything beneficial could ever come out of such a life-shattering event. Yet many men and women have said having cancer was the best thing that ever happened to them. Don't worry if this is not how you feel right now; every person's experience is unique, and it also changes over time.

I believe men and women with cancer can lead full, extraordinary lives. Cancer is a diagnosis, not a death sentence. Yes, some die from the disease, but every year more and more men and women are surviving. No matter what your circumstances may be, I believe you can enjoy a rich, meaningful life and contribute much to the lives of your loved ones and the world – on a whole.

►Why You Would Choose To Work With Me

I am a focused and compassionate listener. I will give you my undivided attention as we explore your fears, problems, concerns - whatever you need to discuss. Together we will assess your needs and develop ways to reclaim your life.

I treat you as the unique individual you are. I will get to know you, listen to you, and learn about your needs, priorities, and the challenges you face.

I am flexible in meeting your needs. You have more to do than there is time. When making your appointment schedule I will make sure that our time together fits your schedule instead of mine.

Meet The Coach Jeanette Marshall BASc. (Human Nutrition) Registered Nutritional Consultant Practitioner Certified Professional Cancer Coach

Jeanette has been working one on one with cancer and cardio-vascular patients and their caregivers since 1996. Her special interest in this area has developed as a result of her mother’s (Freida Pauline Mascola) death at age 66 in 1992 from heart disease and her father’s death (William John Mascola) at age 69 in 1995 from gastric cancer. She dedicates this site to them. In 1996 Jeanette's husband Glen suffered a massive stroke at age 42. It has been since this time that Jeanette has dedicated her life and passion to combating these deadly health conditions. Jeanette is a faculty teacher with Mohawk College and The Institute for Health Sciences - McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a medical researcher having worked with a Toronto area hospital from 1988 to 1996 when she left to pursue her interests in Nutritional Cardiology and Nutritional Oncology. Jeanette is the author of the 2006 and 2007 Cancer Resource Manuals – a daily workbook for cancer patients to chart their progress. In 2005, Jeanette founded Holistic Health Education & Research. This is a holistic health education center for medical professionals, professional nutritionists and therapists, to learn natural therapies to enhance healing from life-threatening diseases. Jeanette is currently registered with the International Organization of Nutritional Consultants, The Nutritional Consultants Organization of Canada, is certified as an Advanced Reflexologist with the Ontario College of Reflexology and Certified as a Nutritional Live Blood Analyst with the Arizona Homeopathic Medical University. Her credentials are upgraded annually through numerous courses in cancer and heart health - to meet professional regulatory and registration guidelines in Ontario and Internationally as a Registered Nutritional Consultant Practitioner and Cancer Coach.

► Individual / Workshop Coaching in Office

This Cancer Support Coaching service offers you the best one on one support following your diagnosis with cancer.  We perform a full assessment of your nutritional, hormonal, lifestyle and environmental health. With the results of your assessment we develop a naturopathic protocol for you on understanding your cancer, and treating this disease through healthy lifestyle and nutritional resources. Your program will be expertly designed for your particular cancer and it can be used in combination with allopathic diagnostic (surgery, chemotherapy and radiation) treatment options.  If you choose a holistic alternative to surgery, chemo and radiation, we have the best resources available for your journey.

► Individual Coaching via Telephone

If you make the decision to work with me, I will ask that you complete and return to me a questionnaire providing me with background information that will help me understand your unique situation.  This questionnaire will provide me with insight to your overall situation so that, together, we can assess your personal needs and concerns and develop an action plan that will start to bring immediate relief from your most pressing issues.

► Home and Hospital Coaching Services

Depending on where you live, we can arrange for personal, one-on-one contact if you are too ill to travel to us. This service would be arranged on an as-needed basis, and can include face-to-face meetings or transportation and accompaniment to medical visits. Additional fees would apply and be arranged for in advance of our visit.

Start now with your FREE introductory session

►The typical coaching process

Through regularly scheduled sessions we will collaborate to help you sort out, prioritize, and manage your immediate and long term needs. For each session, we provide a pre-determined area of guidance and you too may choose to add to the focus of conversation based on your needs at that time. As your coach it is my job to listen, contribute observations, ask questions, provide information and guidance when appropriate, nudge, challenge, support, and encourage you throughout your journey with cancer.

An In-Office Coaching support program includes 6 weeks of weekly personal contact.  It will provide private consultations, workshop sessions and telephone guidance.  You will visit here each week for the first 6 weeks.  By week 7, you will have learned the strategies of healthful living to encourage cancer regression.  Week 7 through week 52 you and I will touch base with one another as the need arises for you.  We are only a phone call or an email away at anytime day or night – 7 days a week.  Please know that we are genuine when we say that.  We care about you doing well – our reputation is on the line.

The Telephone Coaching will be six telephone sessions over six weeks – conducted on our dime on our 800#. Your individual situation will determine the length and frequency of sessions. You may want additional short check-in calls between sessions. I also offer, at no additional cost, email support between sessions. We will typically schedule our calls for the same time and day of each week.

Given the emotional and urgent nature of a cancer diagnosis and the need to act quickly sometimes, we can be flexible about the frequency of calls. There may be periods throughout your treatment and recovery when you may desire more than one session per week. We will frequently assess your needs and make adjustments as necessary. Flexibility will allow us to design a program to suit your changing needs.

At the end of every session, you will come away with a plan of action. Your unique action plan may include specific steps to take, homework to practice new skills, a plan for creating time for fun activities, or a list of questions for your medical team.

►Be prepared for each session. Before each session, spend ten to fifteen minutes quietly preparing for your visit or call. I suggest you jot down a few key issues that you want to discuss during that session. Also, complete any assignments from the previous session. If I have asked you to email something to me before the session, please try to do so twenty-four hours in advance of our session.

Keep your commitment to the established schedule. I request that you make our scheduled coaching sessions a priority. On the rare occasion when you may need to reschedule, I request that you notify me 48 hours in advance.

It is optimal to commit to a minimum of six-weeks of coaching in order to achieve substantial benefit. Each situation is unique and our services can be modified according to your needs and desired results.

Be willing to experiment with new ideas, beliefs, and approaches.

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