Cancer

Journey To Wellness 


A documentary trailer encapsulating my treatment team and an exploration into wellness from  cross-cultural, scientific and spiritual perspectives. More on my visual arts site: Kentart.com
My reflections on Cancer, what it is, various treatment modalities I chose (and why) and a mind-set for creating a path for self-healing.

Let me share a bit of personal background information with you:
My Example
  • I was diagnosed with stage I, slow growth prostate cancer in December 2012. Prior to that, I had two PSA score in the mid 7's, and had a biopsy in November 2012.
  • Immediately I started calling various colleagues who were either doctors, urologists or friends who had addressed prostate cancer and related treatments. I also entered into a research project at the National Cancer Institute as part of the NIH in Bethesda, MD, where they provided a second opinion of my biopsy results and performed an MRI specific to prostate analysis.
  • Ironically I had contributed to a chapter in a book a friend had written, "Embrace, Release, Heal," by Leigh Fortson. It was comprised of interviews with various integrative medicine doctors and Naturopaths who had treated my friend's cancer. I contributed a piece on spiritual healing. See a link below to that chapter.
  • I was working with the Navajo tribe at the time of my diagnosis, and they immediately went into full support mode, with short-term disability coverage, and emotional and spiritual support akin to being wrapped in a warm blanket in a snow storm.
    • Personal Summary:
    My Example
  • Intuitively I knew this was the right path for me. If you have visited my site, my orientation to healing is about embracing the pain, the imbalance, the woundedness, the trauma. I was essentially born with this deep understanding, having spent most of my childhood in nature, surrounded by a very supportive large farming family, free of significant conflict, and full of a consistent focus on wellness. I was also born with abilities to peer deep into the mystery of life and death, quantum physics and natural law. Yet the diagnosis of cancer initially jarred me.
  • It's easy to see how easily one can in that moment of shock, react and run to allopathic solutions, at least that was my experience. There is a place for these interventions and treatments, it just wasn't the path that had the most life for me. These decisions are very personal and need to be made from a deep well-spring within, with as much freedom from fear as possible.
  • The fear will limit our creativity and imaginative abilities to seek out the deeper solutions and paths to wellness. I respect this place of internal choices, with so much on the line. It is not easy to sit amongst so much chaos and discern rightful paths for ourselves. Yet it can be done, and having a good support system around you helps tremendously. Yet in the end, it is an individual decision, based on one's internal compass that will always reveal the truth and right path. W need to be able to hang out in the mystery, the unknown, the gap between disease and wellness, trusting that an integrative force is afoot. For some, it might be science, for some it might be Jesus, for some it might be a meditation practice. I honor a wide assortment of paths to wellness. It's not my place to judge the beliefs of others, yet I will assist if you need to find the path that is right for you.
    • What is Cancer?
    My Example
  • Many refer to cancer as an instability within a cell that occurs ocasionally throughout our lives. Typically our immune system arrests it's spread and we are unaware of the cancer's existence until it migrates beyond what our immune system can safely handle. Cancer, according to Mikhail, is built into our DNA. As we age, death is part of life. Cancer is intended to be one possible way that our bodies die in old age in order to feed the balance of life. As we die, we allow others to arrive with even more consciousness, thus feeding the ever-evolving process of the human's existence.
  • Mikhail Jirnov, a Russian healer on my treatment team, as well as various indigenous wisdom keepers say the the human body is designed to live for approximately 123 years.
  • If we remain transparent (no lies), go for help when we sense an imbalance, life a life of managed stress, while in our purpose, we will prosper according to our natural states of being. When we allow greed and money to be our driving factor, or allow unresolved relational patterns to block energy within our minds and bodies, we are shortening our life potential. In today's busy western societal norms, combined with industrial strength environmental pollution, and a long list of other challenges facing us, we need to be keenly aware of how we are balancing our wellness with these challenges to our health. We have increased opportunities as well to counterbalance these imbalances. These opportunities consist of more refined energy healing techniques and healers, more community-focused pods of people and services, and and ever-evolving consciousness within the human design.
    • Body-Mind Integration:
    My Example
  • It's very easy to react out of deep fear and shock initially when receiving a diagnosis of cancer or other potential life-threatening pattern. I'm here to tell you there is a way through all of this to wellness, that you can learn and not look at cancer as something to fight, but rather something to embrace and learn from. This approach is not for everyone, we all have choices, or to mix and match approaches to find our balance. Remember, as Dr. Winters states, we can still get prostate cancer even with the prostate removed, not simply or entirely by lingering cancer cells that the surgeon missed, but my the thought-forms that create cancer, namely fear or other related lifestyle and belief systems that support imbalances.
  • I feel that I am doing some of the best work of my 20+ years of private practice. This is partly due to my own maturity, and increased wisdom and also from the depths of my healing experience. There is a rejuvenating and very sacred, dark and infinitely deep place that we typically visit during such constitutional healing journeys. Some might call it the void, others, the dark-night of soul phase. It is in here that all reference points are removed. It feels we are disassembled and rebuilt from the inside out. Trusting the mystery of the process is essential. Having a support team around us to hold space is vital, along with an internal faith in the process, while keeping fear at bay, and learning, creativity and imaginative fires burning.
  • Your journey will be unique to you. You will arrive at a knowing yourself like no other process can provide. You can buy this, take short cuts or operate out of ego and analysis to complete this healing journey. It demands your attention, and letting go of preconceived beliefs about the outcome. By letting go of attachment to the outcome, we surrender to the now, and can squarely smell, sense, taste, and observe our deepest recesses, and yes the cancer as energy. We also are invited to allow our imaginations to create what a balanced life would look like. This process is one of creating a new future NOW, by allowing the heart and the soul to go into the future and see what path(s) are being revealed as truth. We can bring those visions, those moments from the future into the present. If those gifts from the future are energetically balanced to our needs, that will be revealed while in the void, we will arrive at a knowing of what's just right. This calls for us to drop obligation, and live from a place of self discovery that maintains wellness not separation.
  • I continue to be monitored with six month check ups, maintain a balanced life, and see clients. Part of my wellness is being a part of the healing of others, it's part of my life's purpose.
    • Nutrition:
    My Example
  • I continue maintaining a paleo diet, free of wheat, most grains, and sugar. My goal is to continually reduce internal inflammation, while minimizing the feeding of any cancer (reduced sugar). Most carbohydrates also turn into sugar when ingested. Please see: paleo breakfast.  Please connect with your own medical, healing arts team for customizing your specific dietary needs. This typically is based on relevant blood work, and the body's feedback that a master healer can assess.
    • My Treatment / Wellness Team:
    • Dr. Nasha Winters: Naturopathic Oncologist in Durango, CO.  She and her team of nutritionists, and kinesthetic experts was the right fit for me. Dr. Nasha was the primary provider. Her keen ability to request the right blood labs and  evaluate the results of monthly blood work was invaluable. This gave me feedback as to how my dietary an psychological shifts were working, along with the various sophisticated supplements she assigned, relevant to what my body's blood work was asking for in order to heal. 
    • Dr. Sidney Brown, PsyD: My supervisor (while with the Tribe) and author, member of the Blackfoot Nation in Montana, held tremendous space, along with a multitude of other colleagues, friends and a far reaching spiritual family. 
    • Blair Wiles, LPC: Energy psychotherapist in Durango, Colorado. I entered into regular sessions, embracing the cancer, leaning into it to discover the silver-lining, the solution or medicine to heal the imbalance the cancer brought forth.
    • Mikhail Jirnov: Russian healer in Ridgway, CO, , who came highly recommended. I love his work and continue receiving follow-up visits from Mikhail. He removes disease and inflammation from the body, with gifts for healing.   
    • Vanessa Morgan: Naturopath, Acupuncturist in Durango, CO. Vanessa has a mastery of her gifts. She approaches healing from various healing camps, while offering nonlinear solutions to a variety of ailments. 
    • Dr. Brian Degenhardt, DO:  Associate Professor-A.T. Still University-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine: Kirksville, Missouri,. A close friend, gifted healer and holds a deep healing space. 
    • Various acupuncturists I have utilized and recommend: Bing Lee, Grand Junction, CO, and Tyler VanGemert, Durango, CO
    • Indigenous Healing:  Because I resided on Navajo land for many years, I also sought out several wisdom keepers who diagnosed, and then carried out a series of ceremonies specific to my needs. These consisted of sand painting ceremonies, numerous sweat lodges and cleansing ceremonies that sometimes took several months to complete.  Again, this is very personal choice to include indigenous ways, which are foreign to many, inaccessible to most. I continue receiving help from several Navajo medicine men. These ways of healing never really stop. Once the disease is addressed, then we move into states of management, ie, remaining in that balanced seat of wellness, followed by gratitude, where the ceremonies shift to a focus of giving back. In this way, there is no beginning or end, it's the circle of life. 
    • A multitude of friends, family and colleagues world-wide. My spiritual family that gathers at a moment's notice to serve humanity. A special thanks to my lover, best friend Jeannie Zandi, Steve who comes in, cooks- stocks our freezer, Tanya my little sister over the mountains, so many of you. Love. 
    • Occasionally I offer workshops with some of my indigenous friends who were part of my treatment team.  If you are interested, please contact me to be added to a mailing list. I also offer some shamanic ceremonial practices as part of my psychotherapy work, stemming from what I've learned during 20 years of residence and study within indigenous cultures. This can include individual work or families, couples or healing centers and community-based organizations. To be added to my mailing list for workshops: [email protected]
     
    Articles/books that speak to various healing approaches that I find useful: Links to services:   Colleagues in the Ft Collins area that I recommend for integrative and cancer related medicine and healing modalities:
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