Linda Carlson - Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery: A Step-by-Step MBSR Approach to Help You Cope with Treatment and Reclaim Your Life

Linda E. Carlson, Ph.D., R.Psych., holds the Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology, has won an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Health Scholar award, and is associate professor in psychosocial oncology at the University of Calgary. She is director of psychosocial oncology research and works as a clinical psychologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, Canada. Carlson is coauthor of The Art and Science of Mindfulness and has published over ninety book chapters and research papers in peer-reviewed journals. She regularly presents her work at international conferences.

Michael Speca, Psy.D., R.Psych., is adjunct associate professor of psychosocial oncology at the University of Calgary and a former Canadian Cancer Society post-doctoral fellow at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. As a clinical psychologist at the Centre, he counsels cancer patients and their families, facilitates a range of group support programs, and cofounded the Centres popular Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery program.

Foreword writer Zindel Segal, Ph.D., is the Morgan Firestone Chair in Psychotherapy and professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also director of the cognitive behavioral therapy unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He is coauthor of The Mindful Way Through Depression and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. He continues to advocate for the relevance of mindfulness-based clinical care in psychiatry and mental health.

If you give yourself over wholeheartedly to what is being offered in this book, it could make an enormous difference in your life and health in important ways too numerous to count. The authors are committed practitioners of mindfulness and their mindfulness-based cancer recovery program, firmly rooted in research findings, radiates an authenticity that you can readily feel, and that will grow with time.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., professor of medicine emeritus at University of Massachusetts Medical School

Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery is a thoughtful, clear, and useful guide to living with cancer and cancer treatment, written by leading experts in the field. It distills Buddhist tradition into a series of practical exercises that can help you spend more of your time in the calm eye of the hurricane that is cancer.

David Spiegel, MD, Willson Professor and associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine

Linda Carlson and Michael Speca have masterfully written a clear, insightful, and comprehensive book on coping with cancer. They beautifully weave together clinical wisdom, deep, personal mindfulness practice, and scientific rigor in their easily accessible book. I believe the wealth of ideas and practices in this book will be of benefit to those with cancer, offering a path toward greater ease, joy, health, and freedom both during treatment and beyond.

Shauna L. Shapiro, associate professor at Santa Clara University and coauthor of The Art and Science of Mindfulness

Linda Carlson and Michael Speca have cowritten this wise and practical guidebook, a generous offering to cancer patients and their allies. Those who find their way to it will certainly be blessed by their clear vision and deep experience.

Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Adapted from FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING by Jon Kabat-Zinn, copyright 1990 by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Used by permission of Dell Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc.

Love after Love from COLLECTED POEMS 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott. Copyright 1986 by Derek Walcott. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Seas from THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ by Juan Ramon Jimenez, translated by H.R. Hays. Copyright 1957 by Juan Ramon Jimenez. Copyright renewed 1985 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

The Summer Day from NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, VOLUME ONE by Mary Oliver. Copyright 2004 by Mary Oliver. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston.

Wild Geese from DREAM WORK by Mary Oliver. Copyright 1994 by Mary Oliver. Reprinted by permission of Atlantic Monthly Press.

Insight Meditation: A Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate by Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. Copyright 2002 Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. All rights reserved. Used with permission from Sounds True, Inc., Boulder, Co, www.SoundsTrue.com.

The Guest House by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Coleman Barks

Love after Love from COLLECTED POEMS 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott. Copyright 1986 by Derek Walcott. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Seas from THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ by Juan Ramon Jimenez, translated by H.R. Hays. Copyright 1957 by Juan Ramon Jimenez. Copyright renewed 1985 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

The Wanting Creature from KABIR: ECSTATIC POEMS by Robert Bly. Copyright 2004 by Robert Bly. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston.

My life is not this steeply sloping hour from SELECTED POEMS OF RAINER MARIA RILKE, translated by Robert Bly. Copyright 1981 . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2010 by Linda E. Carlson and Michael Speca

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

All Rights Reserved

Epub ISBN: 9781608822355

Acquired by Tesilya Hanauer; Cover design by Amy Shoup; Edited by Nelda Street

The Library of Congress has Cataloged the Print Edition as:

Carlson, Linda E.

Mindfulness-based cancer recovery : a step-by-step MBSR approach to help you cope with treatment and reclaim your life / Linda E. Carlson and Michael P. Speca ; foreword by Zindel Segal.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-57224-887-8 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-57224-888-5 (pdf ebook)

1. Cancer--Patients--Rehabilitation. 2. Cancer--Treatment--Psychological aspects. 3. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. 4. Stress (Psychology) 5. Stress management. 6. Relaxation. I. Speca, Michael P. II. Title.

RC262.C299 2010

616.99406--dc22

2010043970

This book is dedicated to all the people who have shared their lives with us through participation in the mindfulness groups we have led over the past thirteen years. Their stories and bravery in the face of cancer continue to inspire us.