Speak the Language of Healing: Living With Breast Cancer Without Going to War

by Susan Kuner, Carol Orsborn, Linda Quigley

Speak the Language of Healing is the product of four courageous women who open their hearts and share their experiences with breast cancer. What drew them together was their dismay over the traditional vocabulary of the medical establishment that "attacks" the healing process as if it were a war and their search for emotional balance and spiritual anchors. Through their personal stories, they develop a new framework for the stages of illness and an accompanying language with which to discuss it. Instead of addressing illness as combat with victims and survivors, theirs is a language of relationship, spirit, and integration.

221 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

Reviews

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is going through treatment for BC, this book touched me on a very personal level and really gave voice to questions that I was subconsciously (and sometimes consciously) asking myself. Big, deep, gnarly questions that cut to the core, such as "Why me?", "Does BC mean something, does it have to?". The answers to which are too deep to dive into here.

The point is that there is a whole spiritual side to this disease that isn't really discussed, and it is so refreshing to read such heartfelt and articulate voices sharing on a very intimate level. I loved this book.

[Jacki · Rating 5 out of 5]

As soon as I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my reaction was to read everything I could get my hands on. There were hundreds of books to choose from, however, and I read story after story of "battles" with cancer. Of the personal accounts I read, this book was the one that resonated most for me. I have since given it to friends diagnosed with breast cancer because I like its softly, softly approach. Having cancer is not a war, it's an illness. You don't fight when you're ill, you take care of yourself. It worked for me.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

really liked this book, its message resonated with how I wanted to go through my "cancer journey" (not "fighting" so much as deciding how to live with it)