In 2012 i fought female head Dr at renowned Boston Breast hospital for her similar distasteful bedside manner as what’s good for one patient is good for all ‘ one size fits all protocol’ .( . I was in a 1% margin of cautionary over dense tissue )and self advocated, resourced and fought and found a smaller venue system solution filled with dignity care with a sound resolution . It was a paradigm shift extraordinaire. It took me thru a maze and at the end of the day I navigated self advocacy following the path and used my albeit angered power beyond measure thru retaliation driven solutions that created my process as major life changing . I healed my surgical wounds with bags of frozen peas , strong woman family support of mom and daughters , then left my ‘wasband’ on the heals of my surgery . Using my anger both conscious and sub consciously has taken me thru my deep shadow work of conditional confinement woman are undergoing at an alarmed pace . I have woken up. There is a silent war within and it’s covertly disguised in martyrdom ; now raging internally esp at Christian fundamentalism at work tearing our insides out of the divine feminine archetype . It cannot turn into a famine in the world.
"Paradigm shift extraordinaire" - I love this phrase - we need more of these :)
I hear the power in your rage, Donna. And that deep shadow work is much needed indeed. I see it liberating the feminine principle in all of us. Rage on, sister!
My kind of read, thank you for sharing. I did not know about that re personality traits and (breast) cancer. Though I can believe it - I’ve done similar research for migraine disease. All linked to fear, anger, perfectionism. That Gabor mate book sounds great! Healing in a toxic culture makes healing way harder and take so much longer! People actually thought I was crazy when I chose an unathodux path to wellness. I’m still told what I’ve achieved isn’t possible. Yet there has been no medical interest in my case - go figure.
That is a horribly familiar story. I am sorry it has been yours also, but Bravo! for healing yourself. I also highly recommend CURED, The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing by Jeffrey Rediger, MD/MDiv, psychiatrist at Harvard who investigated stories like yours and was pilloried for speaking about it and suggesting medics could change their ideas about health!
Wow, haven’t heard of that.yet in no way surprised. There has been no medical interest in my recovery. So I’m writing a book of my own journey to show people what’s possible when we believe in what we’re told is impossible. I’m not holding my breath about medics changing their ideas about health, but I trust that those who know deep down there is another way will read it, be inspired and take enough from it to activate their own deep healing journey and recovery. I’ve had to work through my own fears of repercussion though because I know it’s coming
I am excited to read your Substack and that book you are writing. We need your voice out here. Do you also know @LissaRankinMD and her writing? She is a medic who did listen and created an Institute to encourage the change you are seeking. Thanks for sharing here, Amber. I appreciate the conversation, & your story. All power to you with your book.
Oooh no, is she on here? I’ve got a whole stack of written blogs I’m yet to post on here, including tons of insight into all the bio hacks I made in the first year to show others what it took to break the chronic pain cycle so quickly and set myself on the path to rebalancing hormones (more or less on my own and all without paid/professional/medical support - deep healing treatments and space holders were something I introduced later). I’ve set my stall out on here so that people need never work with me (though I’d love it if half bought my books when they’re published). All my free stuff will gift readers everything they need. (Sharing sporadic posts on other socials for a couple of years has proved this - there is so much more for readers here). Thanks so much for your cheerleading, I really appreciate it - I can see why others never made it this far (something I could never understand before). great to connect with you xx
In psychotherapy, it is well-established that the relationship does a large part of the healing work. It's so sad that western medicine has not embraced this and recognised that people do not heal through drugs and surgeries alone, people heal in a context, and our body can tell us what it needs if we're encouraged to listen much more deeply and become the expert on our own journey. I love your last line 'not hearing the inner screams on which cancer was feeding'.... so powerful
Thanks for adding this, Vicki. I am SO encouraged by the numbers of people who DO recognise these various dynamics for our health. (See commenters above also). And yes, we have a long way to go!
And I love your framing of this personal connection dynamic. Here is piece that I removed from this part of the script because I didn't have any label or research to point to and pin it on - "There is a phenomenon in counselling where they talk about the match of client to therapist. There is something important about how the two people feel together, how they resonate, that often determines the success of the therapy." Is there perhaps a label for this that you know of?
In 2012 i fought female head Dr at renowned Boston Breast hospital for her similar distasteful bedside manner as what’s good for one patient is good for all ‘ one size fits all protocol’ .( . I was in a 1% margin of cautionary over dense tissue )and self advocated, resourced and fought and found a smaller venue system solution filled with dignity care with a sound resolution . It was a paradigm shift extraordinaire. It took me thru a maze and at the end of the day I navigated self advocacy following the path and used my albeit angered power beyond measure thru retaliation driven solutions that created my process as major life changing . I healed my surgical wounds with bags of frozen peas , strong woman family support of mom and daughters , then left my ‘wasband’ on the heals of my surgery . Using my anger both conscious and sub consciously has taken me thru my deep shadow work of conditional confinement woman are undergoing at an alarmed pace . I have woken up. There is a silent war within and it’s covertly disguised in martyrdom ; now raging internally esp at Christian fundamentalism at work tearing our insides out of the divine feminine archetype . It cannot turn into a famine in the world.
"Paradigm shift extraordinaire" - I love this phrase - we need more of these :)
I hear the power in your rage, Donna. And that deep shadow work is much needed indeed. I see it liberating the feminine principle in all of us. Rage on, sister!
My kind of read, thank you for sharing. I did not know about that re personality traits and (breast) cancer. Though I can believe it - I’ve done similar research for migraine disease. All linked to fear, anger, perfectionism. That Gabor mate book sounds great! Healing in a toxic culture makes healing way harder and take so much longer! People actually thought I was crazy when I chose an unathodux path to wellness. I’m still told what I’ve achieved isn’t possible. Yet there has been no medical interest in my case - go figure.
That is a horribly familiar story. I am sorry it has been yours also, but Bravo! for healing yourself. I also highly recommend CURED, The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing by Jeffrey Rediger, MD/MDiv, psychiatrist at Harvard who investigated stories like yours and was pilloried for speaking about it and suggesting medics could change their ideas about health!
Wow, haven’t heard of that.yet in no way surprised. There has been no medical interest in my recovery. So I’m writing a book of my own journey to show people what’s possible when we believe in what we’re told is impossible. I’m not holding my breath about medics changing their ideas about health, but I trust that those who know deep down there is another way will read it, be inspired and take enough from it to activate their own deep healing journey and recovery. I’ve had to work through my own fears of repercussion though because I know it’s coming
I am excited to read your Substack and that book you are writing. We need your voice out here. Do you also know @LissaRankinMD and her writing? She is a medic who did listen and created an Institute to encourage the change you are seeking. Thanks for sharing here, Amber. I appreciate the conversation, & your story. All power to you with your book.
Oooh no, is she on here? I’ve got a whole stack of written blogs I’m yet to post on here, including tons of insight into all the bio hacks I made in the first year to show others what it took to break the chronic pain cycle so quickly and set myself on the path to rebalancing hormones (more or less on my own and all without paid/professional/medical support - deep healing treatments and space holders were something I introduced later). I’ve set my stall out on here so that people need never work with me (though I’d love it if half bought my books when they’re published). All my free stuff will gift readers everything they need. (Sharing sporadic posts on other socials for a couple of years has proved this - there is so much more for readers here). Thanks so much for your cheerleading, I really appreciate it - I can see why others never made it this far (something I could never understand before). great to connect with you xx
Found Lissa! She’s definitely my kind of writer - thanks for recommending 🙏
In psychotherapy, it is well-established that the relationship does a large part of the healing work. It's so sad that western medicine has not embraced this and recognised that people do not heal through drugs and surgeries alone, people heal in a context, and our body can tell us what it needs if we're encouraged to listen much more deeply and become the expert on our own journey. I love your last line 'not hearing the inner screams on which cancer was feeding'.... so powerful
Thanks for adding this, Vicki. I am SO encouraged by the numbers of people who DO recognise these various dynamics for our health. (See commenters above also). And yes, we have a long way to go!
And I love your framing of this personal connection dynamic. Here is piece that I removed from this part of the script because I didn't have any label or research to point to and pin it on - "There is a phenomenon in counselling where they talk about the match of client to therapist. There is something important about how the two people feel together, how they resonate, that often determines the success of the therapy." Is there perhaps a label for this that you know of?
In the therapy world, it would be referred to as 'therapeutic alliance'.
Research has consistently shown it to be a strong predictor of therapy outcomes. Here's a link that may be useful https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-01390-003
Very helpful thank you! I am excited to put that back in with the professionally-recognisable term.