The Labyrinth of Cancer
by Irene Siegel, L.C.S.W. • Huntington, NY

Life is like a labyrinth. We think we are moving in a straight line, but in fact we move in and out of intersecting lines of factors, circumstances, with curves and dips along the way. Wasn’t it John Lennon who said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans?”

And then we judge these circumstances as taking us off course, diverting us from our goal; a useless expenditure of energy that interferes with our progress. And yet, ironically, it is often these divergent factors that bring us closer to our center, and our soul’s journey.

Sometimes these divergent courses feel like much more than an inconvenience. Disease, such as Cancer, can appear to suddenly emerge out of nowhere, stopping us in our tracks and shaking us to our core. Our world that made sense before now seems like complete chaos. We are torn out of what is familiar in an instant and thrown into a completely unfamiliar and frightening maze filled with medical doctors, tests, and treatment choices.

So how did we really get here, and is it chaos at all? Or is it a natural and perhaps predictable outcome of unseen and unconscious factors along our path? In integrative healthcare, we use a 21st century model of understanding that we are made of not just a physical body with a genetic coding, but that our physical and emotional health is related to many contributing factors. Emotional stress, environmental toxicity, poor nutrition and lack of exercise are some of the factors that contribute to the triggering of dormant genetic coding and the development of disease.

A Labyrinth is a spiritual symbol found around the world. As we walk the Labyrinth of life we learn that there is a path that we follow that may appear to be winding and confusing but in fact each step takes us closer to our spiritual center. As we walk the Labyrinth we may at times feel more distant from our center than ever, but in fact we are a step closer.

So, is the crisis of Cancer a diversion on your life’s path, or an abrupt about face that gets your attention and leads you closer to your deeper truth and your soul’s journey? When we can become conscious of the factors that have contributed to the disease we become conscious of the steps necessary to reverse the disease process. True healing is about consciousness – awakening the part of us that has been unconscious to our choices and actions, suppressing our immune system and leaving us vulnerable to disease.

Joyce came in for psychotherapy, having been diagnosed with breast cancer many years ago. When a reoccurrence emerged she was determined to take steps beyond just conventional treatment. She had a wonderful and long term relationship with her oncologist who supported her each step of the way. Joyce was following a nutritional program that was very helpful in boosting her immune system. But it wasn’t until she was in psychotherapy that she realized there was childhood trauma that stopped her from reaching her full creative and emotional potential. As she suppressed her potential emotionally, her body was suppressing its potential for health. She began to see the relationship between revealing and living her truth, and her body bouncing back to a healthier state.

There are critical points of opportunity in our lifetime. Is crisis by chance or does Spirit reach out from behind the veils and point us in a new direction? The original imprint of our family and lifetime “blueprint” now becomes a “road map” for our soul’s journey. We begin to explore how our process of disease emerged from the seeds of our traumas, belief systems, cellular memory, and toxins in our world. Through this exploration we begin to unravel the factors that have triggered a pattern in our cellular structure related to disease. This exploration of these factors that lead us back over a road that may have seemed chaotic and painful now shows us that it is this same road, with the addition of conscious awareness, which makes it our path to personal power. We begin to find our way back to a deeper part of ourselves and our road to health.

Is Cancer your turning point?

Irene Siegel, L.C.S.W. is Co-Director of Center Point, an integrated health and counseling center in Huntington, New York where she conducts her psychotherapy practice. She is the creator of the Labyrinth Series, an 8 week series on integrated healthcare now being offered to cancer patients and survivors. For additional questions or information about the Labyrinth Series, call Center Point at (631) 547-5433.