Group Therapy for Cancer Patients: A Research-based Handbook of Psychological Care Book

Psychiatrist David Spiegel was the first to demonstrate that group support for cancer patients results in significantly enhanced survival times and in measurably greater quality of life-less anxiety, less depression, and half as much pain. His landmark research was first published in The Lancet and later featured on Bill Moyers' PBS series Healing and the Mind; now, with psychologist Catherine Classen, he articulates the principles of conducting supportive-expressive group treatment with the medically ill.

Because a shared intimacy with mortality creates concerns very different from those that apply in conventional group settings, Spiegel and Classen tackle priorities for living and fears of dying, strategies for symptom-control (including, hypnosis), questions like whether group members should convene in the bedroom of someone who can't get to the regular meeting -- in addition to sharing the rationale and the practical tools for constructing and facilitating therapy groups with this patient-population.

Their book is rooted in the empirically-validated conviction that meaningful social support is a vital link between medical care and disease outcome. It is at once a model, a manual for clinicians at every level, and a celebration of a kind of helping that actually helps.