A special writing workshop for cancer patients, cancer survivors, and caregivers is helping them to process their experiences through a safe and creative outlet.
Run by the Cancer Supporting Services Program at Mount Sinai Cancer Center, New York City, the weekly workshops were created and are run by Emily Rubin, an author and cancer survivor herself.
“Anyone can write,” says Rubin. “The writing workshop helps patients to discover their own creative resources while they are meeting the challenges of diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.”
She uses prompts and quotes to get the creative juices flowing in her writers.
“Once you’re given an idea with a writing prompt, our imaginations take over, and you either have a memory around something or you find a way to take what’s on your mind and put it on the page,” Emily said.
“What I say to everyone who is new to the workshop is that we’ve all experienced cancer in some way. There are a great deal of emotions that you experience ― anger, fear, jealousy, very dark moments. But there is also a great sense of empowerment, because you have to fight and you have to make choices that are extremely difficult. You’re facing your mortality, and it is an incredibly personal journey. All of those factors are what one needs to write,” she said.
No Writing Experience Needed
“Participants do not need to have writing experience, and often caregivers are encouraged to participate. Participants utilize the time to share thoughts about cancer or take time out to not think about treatment and side effects,” said Allison Snow, PhD, assistant director of cancer supportive services at Mount Sinai.
“The workshop has allowed our patients an opportunity to hone their writing skills through a creative as well as therapeutic outlet. The patients often share their work with one another, which has allowed them to bond through the writing and shared experiences,” Dr Snow said.
She told Medscape Medical News that patients have been very enthusiastic about the writing workshop.
“They have given extremely positive feedback about the program and appreciate Emily’s kind and nurturing way. They often describe the workshops as inspiring as well as therapeutic. They will say things like, ‘Emily has been a lifesaver for me and my treatment.’ ‘Oh, my God, please keep this going, this has been the thing that’s gotten me through.’ They write about how wonderful Emily has been and how much the class has meant to them. Of all the groups we do, and we do a lot of groups, the best feedback has been around this particular class. It is the most well-received program of all the programs we offer,” she said.
Participant Maryann DeLeo, a documentary filmmaker who lives in the East Village, New York City, talked about her experience with the Writers Workshop.
“I joined about a year ago. I was recovering from treatment for breast cancer and staying home a lot. I saw the flyer for the Writing Workshop and kept saying to myself, I have to go and do that, and then one day I decided, OK, this is it. You can’t lay on the bed anymore watching Netflix. I have to go and do something,” she told Medscape Medical News.
“It’s hard to say just what makes you tired, but I felt tired from three things: the treatment, from the stress, and the emotional roller coaster of the whole thing.
“So I walked into the room, in the same building where I had gotten the chemo, a building that I always dreaded going to. I walked into the class one day and met Emily Rubin, and it was just instant joy. This is a wonderful person with boundless energy, and she has bright eyes and she’s very welcoming. So I just started writing and reading.”
Cancer Left Behind
“It’s hard to describe what it’s been like for me. It’s kind of left cancer behind, and the cancer has been in the rearview mirror, and this was a whole other stage.
“Emily brings a prompt every week, and then we just write. Then we read what we have written out loud to the others. I have been finding that the reading out loud to people has been really remarkable. It makes me feel really good in a funny way.
“I want to emphasize that Emily Rubin is just the best. I don’t know what the workshop would be like with somebody else, but she’s really great. I think it does make a difference that she’s gone through cancer, although she doesn’t really talk about it. She might introduce herself to somebody and let them know, but it’s not a big topic of conversation, and she’s recovered some years ago.”
Writing to Heal
Dr Snow says she often recommends that patients keep a journal or write before they go to bed at night.
“Writing distracts patients from what they are going through. I often tell people to write if they can’t sleep. Writing is really helpful to stop racing thoughts. If you can write down what is bothering you, if you can get some of those anxiety thoughts down on paper, you can help stop those racing throughts,” she said.
It is also helpful for cancer patients to be around others who are going through the same thing, Dr Snow said.
“They are around other people who have similar situations and circumstances. Emily is using writing as a tool to help patients be creative, and this allows them freedom of expression in a truly nonjudgmental environment,” she added.
Maryann agrees that being around others who have experienced cancer is beneficial.
“There is some connection to others in the workshop. There was some thread there so that I felt connected and cared for and seen, visible,” she said.
“The workshop fills a gap. When I was going for my treatment, I felt very cared for. The nurses, the doctors, the person who is taking your blood – everybody is concerned about you. And then you finish your treatment and they cut you loose. You have to go on on your own.
“But the writing is like another bridge to feeling cared for again, because you are with a small group of people who’ve all been through some kind of cancer, or they are caregivers who have been helping people with cancer. Emily herself is a cancer survivor, so you feel understood in some way, even though everybody’s illness and situation is different,” Maryann said.
Writing to Discover
“Writing also starts to uncover layers of things about yourself,” she continued.
“There’s a Grace Paley quote that Emily uses. I can’t remember it exactly, but it goes something like this: ‘You write to find out what you don’t know about what you know.’ You don’t know there are certain things that are on your mind or that you have in your head, and then all of a sudden they are down on the page. So it’s very revelatory. It’s like you get to know yourself all over again. After getting a diagnosis, you do sort of start all over in some ways, because you’ve faced something serious and you do kind of look at your life in a new way.”
Such a program should become a part of supportive care therapy, says Maryann.
“This needs to be part of the healing program protocol. I’m always surprised that there are so few people in the classes, because there are so many people going through the building who are getting treatment,” she said.
“Everybody can write, and everybody has a story to tell. I’ve heard some incredible stories and met incredible people with incredible stories ― people I would never have known, would have passed on the street and probably not even noticed ― and now I find out there are these amazing people.”
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