This transcript was extracted from the ‘Thyroid cancer – Looking after yourself‘ video.

So thank you Bernie again, for the opportunity to speak here today. As I said my name is Sue Patchett, I’m one of the counsellors with Cancer Focus. And as I said here to talk about looking after yourself. And I suppose it’s hoped I suppose I’ve been at these sessions before and again, there’s that crossover you know with the other speakers. So hopefully this session will complement the other speakers here today. So, so in terms of this slide again recovering from a cancer diagnosis and its treatments and

I think it’s important to recognise that, you know the impact of treatments is not just about your physical body healing, but it’s also about allowing the healing of the mind and emotions to take place. And what we find sometimes within, you know, when we meet you know clients who have been affected by a cancer diagnosis, sometimes the focus is on the physical, you know, getting through the treatment, getting through the surgery, getting through the chemotherapy, whatever that may be.

And sometimes it’s the emotions then follow through after the treatment’s over. So again recognising how we feel physically can have an impact on how you feel emotionally and vice versa. So we put this slide up really again it’s just to highlight again, you may feel many emotions.

Some of you may recognise here, some maybe not. But again it’s to recognise, we list these in an attempt to normalise these feelings and recognise that your feelings are individual, they’re valid and deserve to be acknowledged. And I suppose this slide again highlights that these are just some of the common questions that we find clients will ask. There can be a sense of dealing with the unknown, a sense of loss of self and feeling alone even when surrounded by others, and people have spoken about adapting to a new normal.

So question, how can I communicate with those I love? And sometimes again, that can, it’s not that people don’t want to speak to their loved ones, it’s because there’s that sense of protection and sometimes speaking to somebody outside of that family/friends circle can actually provide that space to talk about their feelings.

And again, just to highlight, these are sometimes when the worries/worrying sypmtoms be more heightened. And again, just to highlight that this isn’t abnormal. So times of just diagnosis, during treatment, whenever treatment’s finished, the term “scanxiety” I’m not sure if you’s have heard that, but actually going for a scan it’s actually in the dictionary.

So that term “scanxiety”, feeling the sense of worry you know, those very powerful emotions pre to scans and such like. Sort of thinking about, we can’t take that away but how do we manage that? And I suppose this is what we’re going to focus on in the next few slides.

So how to cope? And again these are just some offerings that might be helpful. Some maybe you will find more helpful than others and it’s just recognising the individuality of each and every everybody here today, and some you have maybe already have tapped into. So if we think about talking about it, again someone once said to me, they talked about “name it to tame it”. It doesn’t take it away. It doesn’t take the worries or the the feelings away. But actually talking to somebody about it can be helpful.

You know, talking to a trusted friend, maybe your nurse specialist, you know part of the health care team, family or even if you felt it was appropriate, tapping into counselling services as well. I suppose bottling up feelings may make you feel, you know, maybe make you feel worse and again talking can help reduce that sense of isolation. So is the importance of keeping in touch, be that by meeting up with folk, emails, texts, social media. And I say that with caution as well with regard to social media, sometimes social media can portray that people are managing “better” for want of a better word and I suppose it’s to recognise you’re individual, other people are individual as well.

So just a wee bit of caution a wee bit of a mindfulness around that. And I suppose in terms of keeping in touch, connection is essential for each and every one of us, our emotional well-being. So really that connecting with others can actually in turn improve or support your emotional wellbeing.

So just again, just an offering folks, in terms of with regards to sleep and maybe unhelpful thinking patterns.

So again, it’s individual folks to each and every one of us, everybody here. So if we think about sleeplessness, there’s not a right or wrong amount of sleep for everyone. We’re all individual here. But there’s some helpful habits can include getting outside even briefly in the morning, being active during the day. And again, that will be different for everyone.

And again, different people have different levels of activity. Again, consider in your sleep environment thinking of your bedding. Block out light, having a cool environment. Reduce caffeine. As we said earlier in terms of an alcohol intake. And again, it’s suggested maybe having a relaxation space before going to bed. There’s also a sleep well app again that may be helpful and that’s accessible free for people with a cancer diagnosis via Macmillan.

So we can get support from colleagues here in the room. Just to say there is, again, there’s a technique that I came across and I can’t actually recall where I came across it, but I on to Mr. google and it’s actually entitled Cognitive shuffling. And I don’t want you to think goodness. What’s this woman going to tell us to do cognitive shuffling.

But really the essence of it is if you’re up at night and you’ve difficulty getting over to sleep, you know, there’s ruminating over things, you know, things that you need to do the next day or worries, concerns. What this involves is actually taking a starter word. So starting with a neutral word, nothing that’s going to be triggering.

So something, say for example the word dream, okay. And then try to avoid anything that’s going to be emotionally charged and or as I say triggering for you. So you take the first letter of that word. And so you say for example you choose a word dream. So ‘D’. So you start going a dog. So then you visualize a dog, okay.

And then you move on to the donut. So, a donut. And you keep going with words, you know with regards to the letter D until the exhaust that and then you move to R. And I suppose the idea of this, it actually, you know it’s mundane thinking and it actually helps switch off that sort of worrying.

So just an offering folks. I’ve sort of suggested it to some of my clients and they’ve found it has been helpful. Others maybe not so, but it’s just recognizing there’ll be individual things for each and every one of us here. Folks, that’s just as I say, an offering, unhelpful thinking. And again, we can’t stop thoughts. Our thoughts will come in.

But the thing is, with thoughts, thoughts can be very powerful. And sometimes they’re not accurate, you know? So again, it’s an opportunity to maybe reframe the thought. So say for example, if you consider the “what if” thinking, you know what if this is going to happen, what if this will happen. And we’re not sure that that’s right or wrong.

Sometimes what can be helpful is actually to reframe that or add in or what if not, so to think, well, what if, what if not? And what that can potentially do is neutralize that thought, actually stop, or maybe lessen the emotion that’s attached to the thought. So maybe that’s something that might be helpful in terms of to reframe sort of unhelpful thinking patterns.

Okay. So in terms of this, yes, hobbies interests again they can actually provide distraction and give you an opportunity to change something to feel good about. Sometimes what we find whenever people are faced with serious illness, the hobbies, the things that they enjoyed nearly take a backseat. So sometimes having an opportunity to somebody about maybe about how you’ve been feeling that can actually reignite things that you enjoy doing.

So it’s actually tapping into that again. And the next one there, I suppose I’m going to talk with you about relaxation in a second. But I suppose compassion towards yourself, what I find in practice is a lot of clients would be very hard on themselves. Really, really, you know, that self-talk has given them a really hard time.

So what I would suggest, folks, is the importance of being kind to yourself. And again, if say, the self-talk is quite harsh, even say to yourself, would I say this to my friend? Would I say this to a colleague? Would I say this to a family member? And a lot of the times, the self-talk, you wouldn’t you wouldn’t repeat that to anybody else.

So even to think about that, if you’re giving yourself a hard time about things, think about being kind and compassionate toward yourself.

What I want to think about now is linking back to that sort of the mindfulness or the relaxation practice. And there’s many of them, folks, and there’ll be some that you’ll tap into more than others. Okay. But what I’m going to think about with a focus and practice is, again, an offering of is a five sensing ground in technique.

And again, a simple way to bring yourself back to the present moment by engaging in your senses. And again, this can be done anywhere. So say for example, we think about five things that you see. So that might be and I say being focused with that it could be the texture and the wall. It could be the light reflecting on an object colors in a painting you know.

So think about five things and really focus on that and then move into four things that you can touch. So again, that might be the fabric on your clothing. It might be feeling your feet on the ground. It might be feeling the support of the back of the chair that you’re sitting on. So just focusing on those, those aspects of what you feel, what you touch and then the hearing.

So it’s actually three things. It’s distinct noises. So such there might be you’re breathing. It might be the hum of this speaker this mic It might be coffee might be perfume aftershave And then taste one thing that you can taste. And again, that might be the lingering taste of the coffee. It might be you’ve had,

Maybe there’s a mint sweet that you’ve had, but it might be if there’s no flavor at all. the actual idea of focusing on that is actually still engaging in sense. So again, it’s finding ways to focus on the here and now. And that’s just as I say one offering you might find that you’ll focus may be more so on one of the senses.

One sense may be more prevalent than others. But again, just an offering for you to take away from today. And and again, just to highlight it’s natural, if you think, goodness, if you’re sitting, focusing and I keep my mind keeps taking me away, I keep wandering back to, you know, what’s happening or things that I have to do that’s not abnormal.

We can’t stop that. But it’s just noticing. Goodness, my mind is taking me away. Let’s come back again. Doing that with kindness, folks. So moving on to these last couple of slides and Bernie kindly before the coffee sort of highlighted things that we offer here in Cancer Focus and again, we have Anthony here, providing information and again, some of these services may be helpful, appropriate to you here now, but they also may be helpful for sign posting to friends, family and such like as well.

And just to say there is information here in the stand but also our website as well.

And I suppose just being a counsellor I’ll sort of flag the counselling. But anyway counselling again, is talk and therapy and we’ve got colleagues here with there’s Charis, there’s action cancer. There’s other organizations across the province that can provide support. And so, it’s talking therapy offering a confidential space as I said it’s confidential. What you share,

Again, there’s slight limits to that. But again, it’s a confidential space for people impacted by a cancer diagnosis and that should be or could be the person with the diagnosis, their family, you know, their family as well to reflect on and explore thoughts and feelings with somebody outside that family friend circle. And again, as I said, it’s available from other agencies as well.

And I suppose we are regional. So we’ve got services here in the Northern Trust in Fern House and up in Ballymoney as well. And again, they’re are just some of our other services as well that we can tap into. We’ve got our cancer support groups and again they may not be relevant for yourself here today, but again can be signposted for colleagues as well.

And then we also then have our cancer prevention. So the keeping well vans, and stop smoking services care in the sun, as well. And finally I suppose just as a reminder, this quote “cancer may cause you to look at yourself differently and challenge you beyond what you ever thought was possible. But it doesn’t define you, and it’s part of your life, but not your whole life.”

So folks, thank you so much for your attention today. Unfortunately, I have to leave now but if there’s any questions or anything you want to tap into, just speak to Bernie. So thanks a million.