Article, Audio, Home Exercise
Identity Issues: Body Image, Sexuality And Changes During Cancer
Body image, often a personal reflection of our identity, can undergo a profound transformation during the journey of cancer treatment. While the physical battle against cancer is widely recognized, the silent struggle with body image issues is a reality for many. This often overlooked aspect affects a significant number of individuals undergoing cancer treatment, altering their perception of self and impacting their emotional well-being. In this short presentation, we aim to shed light on the complexities of body image challenges faced by cancer patients and to provide a few tips on how to best hanlde body image challenges
Once you have completed this presentation you can move on to the presentation that focuses on Sexuality, Relationships and Body Image
Whether you are a young cancer survivor looking for some theoretical background to better understand your experiences or a professional supporting young cacner survivors we hope you find these resources useful!
Once you have completed this presentation you can move on to the presentation that focuses on Sexuality, Relationships and Body Image
Whether you are a young cancer survivor looking for some theoretical background to better understand your experiences or a professional supporting young cacner survivors we hope you find these resources useful!
Therapeutic writing, Lifeline Exercise
Identity Issues: Lifeline Exercise - Instructions
Experiential Exercise: “Life Line”
We would now like you to sit comfortably in your chair. I'm going to ask you now to close your eyes or look down and notice your breathing. Inhale..and exhale....(repeat 2-3 times) as you breathe, focus your attention on your shoulders, notice if they are tense and let them relax, let them rest, ..... then observe your hands.. let them fall heavily without holding any weight…move to your pelvis and find the most comfortable position on your chair, let your pelvis relax and rest on it, move to your feet and let them fall heavily on the pelvis, and let them rest on the chair floor.
We would now like you to make a line that shows your path until now. The line can have any shape and form you want, it will start from the beginning of life and will end in the present. In its shape will the most significant, in your opinion, incidents or periods of time in your life but also experiences, situations that you remember/ touched you. Think about your development to date, the setbacks/difficulties and also the beautiful and happy moments or circumstances.
Now draw the line you imagined. You can use different colors, materials, symbols, shapes, or short words to capture what came to your mind.
We would now like you to sit comfortably in your chair. I'm going to ask you now to close your eyes or look down and notice your breathing. Inhale..and exhale....(repeat 2-3 times) as you breathe, focus your attention on your shoulders, notice if they are tense and let them relax, let them rest, ..... then observe your hands.. let them fall heavily without holding any weight…move to your pelvis and find the most comfortable position on your chair, let your pelvis relax and rest on it, move to your feet and let them fall heavily on the pelvis, and let them rest on the chair floor.
We would now like you to make a line that shows your path until now. The line can have any shape and form you want, it will start from the beginning of life and will end in the present. In its shape will the most significant, in your opinion, incidents or periods of time in your life but also experiences, situations that you remember/ touched you. Think about your development to date, the setbacks/difficulties and also the beautiful and happy moments or circumstances.
Now draw the line you imagined. You can use different colors, materials, symbols, shapes, or short words to capture what came to your mind.
Notice your feeling right now and write it down on a paper next to you. (Pause)
Now, we would like you to look back over your life line and think about the people, the positive relationships that have been close to you throughout this route. They may be people from the past who are no longer in your life or people dear to you who came and stayed to this day close to you, friends near or far, family close or extended, people who supported you and you knew them well or others that you knew well you knew less well or not at all, but somehow it was there for you.
Observe the memories as they come to your mind remember the faces, the names the sense of these people and note them up the line of your life.
Now, we would like you to look back over your life line and think about the people, the positive relationships that have been close to you throughout this route. They may be people from the past who are no longer in your life or people dear to you who came and stayed to this day close to you, friends near or far, family close or extended, people who supported you and you knew them well or others that you knew well you knew less well or not at all, but somehow it was there for you.
Observe the memories as they come to your mind remember the faces, the names the sense of these people and note them up the line of your life.
Now notice how you feel.. Now notice your life line…
You should now move on to part two of this exercise which is the Reflection Questions section
Identity Issues, Lifeline Exercise, Reflection, Questions
Identity Issues: Lifeline Exercise - Part 2 Reflection Questions
Reflection questions
How is it now that your positive relationships have been imprinted? Are they the same as before?
Has something changed?
Keep the feeling you are having right now and write it down on the same piece of paper next to you.
How easy was it for positive relationships to come to mind?
Where did everyone focus, how many also saw the toxic relationships next to the positive ones?
How is it now that your positive relationships have been imprinted? Are they the same as before?
Has something changed?
Keep the feeling you are having right now and write it down on the same piece of paper next to you.
How easy was it for positive relationships to come to mind?
Where did everyone focus, how many also saw the toxic relationships next to the positive ones?
