Tag Archives: hope

Elissa Goodman: Charting a Path of Healing and Thriving



Elissa Goodman is a holistic nutritionist, cleanse expert, and author of Cancer Hacks. Following her own experience with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1992, and her husband’s death 11 years later from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Elissa turned to the study of holistic nutrition as a conduit to healing for herself and her young daughters. That path led her to reinvent herself, and at age 50 she launched a thriving nutrition enterprise. Elissa talks about her belief that we can all participate in our own holistic healing by incorporating a spiritual practice and attending to the body’s nutritional needs by eating whole foods.


Patrick Norris: Finding Purpose in Offering Comfort and Hope



Patrick Norris is a television director who in 2003 was diagnosed with Stage III non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. In today’s episode, Patrick recounts the central role his wife, Jody, played in helping him find the right treatment and how he wore the same comforting shirt during each of his chemotherapy treatments. Patrick talks about losing his sobriety of 18 years during chemotherapy, and his subsequent search to find meaning and purpose by connecting with others who are in treatment for cancer and providing them with a measure of comfort and hope.


Rory Green: Developing an Ongoing Gratitude Practice



Receiving a cancer diagnosis can make you feel like you’ve been plucked out of your familiar existence and dropped onto an unfamiliar planet. How does one cope with this altered life circumstance when faced with a terrain that is not only unfamiliar but also deeply frightening and threatening to one’s very existence?

In today’s episode of Real Cancer, I talk with Rory Green, psychotherapist and writing coach, who in 2015 was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. We explore Rory’s strategies for navigating feelings of fear and anxiety, her newfound appreciation for the mundane details of everyday life, and the gratitude practice she has maintained as a result of her diagnosis and treatment. We conclude with a discussion of the counsel that Rory has shared with others who are newly diagnosed with cancer or other life altering situations.