At City of Hope, we understand that the emotional effects of a life-altering illness are diverse and personal for patients, friends, partners and family members. So we created the Department of Supportive Care Medicine as an island of kindness, compassion and comprehensive information to help you manage this unpredictable journey.
The degree to which people cope effectively with stressful life events can be an essential aid in healing and wellbeing.
Marissa A. Cangin, Psy.D. is here today to give great advice about how to handle those stressful life events.
Selected Podcast
The Importance of Self-Compassion During and Beyond Cancer Treatment
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Cangin received her undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA, where she was inducted in Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology. She then went on to earn her Psy.D. from Immaculata University in Immaculata, PA. During this time, Dr. Cangin completed a predoctoral internship at Minnesota Neurorehabilitation Services in Brainerd, MN, and was awarded the Existential-Humanistic Theory and Application Award by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association. She continued her postdoctoral training by completing two fellowships, the first in HMO-based clinical psychology at Kaiser Permanente in Salem, OR, and the latter in psychosocial oncology from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC.
Dr. Cangin is the recipient of several honors and awards. In 2009, her research proposal titled “Reducing Dyspnea in Patients with Lung Cancer through a Breathing Intervention” was chosen for NCI concept development. Dr. Cangin has authored numerous articles and regularly gives presentations on her work. She is affiliated with a number of professional societies including the American Psychosocial Oncology Society and has chaired subcommittees on survivorship care planning and distress screening.
Learn more about Marissa A. Cangin, Psy.D
Marissa A. Cangin, Psy.D.
Marissa A. Cangin, Psy.D., is an assistant clinical professor in the department of supportive care medicine, as a clinical psychologist. She comes to City of Hope from Cornerstone Hematology/Oncology and Hayworth Cancer Center of High Point Regional-UNC Health Care in High Point, NC, where she was director of psychosocial oncology services.Dr. Cangin received her undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA, where she was inducted in Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology. She then went on to earn her Psy.D. from Immaculata University in Immaculata, PA. During this time, Dr. Cangin completed a predoctoral internship at Minnesota Neurorehabilitation Services in Brainerd, MN, and was awarded the Existential-Humanistic Theory and Application Award by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association. She continued her postdoctoral training by completing two fellowships, the first in HMO-based clinical psychology at Kaiser Permanente in Salem, OR, and the latter in psychosocial oncology from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC.
Dr. Cangin is the recipient of several honors and awards. In 2009, her research proposal titled “Reducing Dyspnea in Patients with Lung Cancer through a Breathing Intervention” was chosen for NCI concept development. Dr. Cangin has authored numerous articles and regularly gives presentations on her work. She is affiliated with a number of professional societies including the American Psychosocial Oncology Society and has chaired subcommittees on survivorship care planning and distress screening.
Learn more about Marissa A. Cangin, Psy.D
Transcription:
The Importance of Self-Compassion During and Beyond Cancer Treatment
Melanie Cole (Host): If you’re coping with a stressful life event, you may not know where to turn. My guest today is Dr. Marisa Cangin and she’s a Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope. Welcome to the show, Dr. Cangin. When people are dealing with something stressful whether it’s cancer or a loved one with cancer, what’s the first thing you tell them about supportive care medicine? What is that?
Dr. Marisa Cangin (Guest): Thank you, Melanie. I’m happy to be here. The first thing I tell them is that they are absolutely not alone. Cancer can create a sense of isolation being sick and, in some ways, I completely respect that and I would never want to minimize somebody’s unique experience that truly only they know at a certain level. In many other ways, we don’t want them to feel isolated or unsupported and, not only by others, but I encourage them to be their number one support. They are the only person that is with them all the time 24/7. Who better to be their number one support?
Melanie: How do they do that because they feel like they’ve got to deal with treatments and side effects and maybe they still are working a job or have children or parents? There are so many stressors in our lives anyway, Dr. Cangin, how can you give yourself that little bit of self-love and compassion to accept what’s going on around you and deal with it?
Dr. Cangin: You’re right, Melanie. Life’s already so hard. Just by being a human, we struggle. We all suffer at times of varying degrees. There are various challenges that come and go. Hopefully, they go more than they come but, particularly when somebody is ill, it can be exceptionally hard to be loving toward oneself. Like you mentioned, self-love or the concept of self-compassion, it can be profoundly important, particularly when somebody is sick or going through treatment. That’s for the patient as well as those who care about the patient. I guess for the purposes of this interview, we can talk about the person going through the treatment. Self-compassion – the easiest definition is to treat yourself with the same kind of kindness and grace and care that you would treat those you care about. It could be your good friend, your loved one and that involves recognizing that we are human, we are imperfect, we do mess up at times. When we struggle, it comes with being human. A lot of times when we’re going through something really challenging, we conclude on some level, whether it’s conscious or not, that we have somehow failed. How we respond to that can determine whether we struggle more or whether we can actually grow during the struggle. Not deny it – face it head on. When sometimes somebody might think “Well, this shouldn’t have come up in my life”. On some level that implies that everybody else is living a perfect, problem free life. That type of thinking can cause additional suffering because people will feel more isolated from the rest of humanity. We know that deep, meaningful connections to others have protective factors, both emotionally and physically and also healing properties. When we feel connected to others, that’s the stuff that makes life worth living. We want people to feel more connected. If we have love towards ourselves, it gives us the courage to accept we all struggle and not kind of enter that negative feedback loop where we feel bad about feeling bad, conclude there’s something wrong with us for feeling that way and then go down a pathway that is exhausting. Especially when somebody is in treatment, they need all the energy that they can get. When we focus on the fact that everybody struggles and that would differ from “poor me” or “why me” like a place of self-pity, it significantly alters how we relate to those challenges. The door opens to grow. In no way is it putting on rose-colored glasses or fluffy, although it can sound kind of hokey and I’m not above hokey or cheesy if it works.
Melanie: I hear what you’re saying. We negative self-talk even in the best of times – especially women. We do this to ourselves all the time and when we’re going through cancer treatment or treatment for any illness, that negative self-talk can be magnified. How do you work with people to get them to tone down those voices and to love themselves even if it becomes a positive image thing, a self-esteem if they’re going through breast cancer treatment? How do you work with people to get them to change that?
Dr. Cangin: At least when I meet with people in therapy, the most important first step is for them to feel safe and heard. They need to feel that they are in a partnership or in a team and they are the leader of the team. When we have that rapport and that safe, comfortable space, then I can challenge them in a supportive way when I identify certain patterns in how they speak about their experience. I can challenge them to make a conscious decision to be more compassionate towards oneself. There are specific techniques that you’ll hear: cognitive behavioral therapy, meaning finding therapy, supportive intervention and mindfulness is a big one. You’ll hear about mindfulness and that’s really being fully present in your experience and noticing what’s going on including your emotions and your thoughts without judging them; without being critical. That goes against nature. We need judgement to make the decisions, particularly those that might be life-threatening. We don’t need to be judgmental toward ourselves and our thoughts and how we’re coping. It might not be an ideal situation and we can’t always change the factors that are part of the situation but what we can do is focus on what we can control. That makes the rest of it a little bit more bearable.
Melanie: How well-spoken you are. Tell us about the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope and what types of services do you offer?
Dr. Cangin: First of all, thank you very much for saying that. I am over the moon excited and privileged to be a member of this team. I joined City of Hope in January of the current year and the Department of Supportive Care Medicine is filled with various disciplines. It’s a large department. We have divisions within the department. I’m in the division of psychology and I apologize in advance as I won’t be able to name them all, which is a good problem because it means that there are so many of us. We have clinical social work, psychiatry, supportive care, physicians, nurse practitioners and many of them have very extensive experience in palliative care and helping people cope with pain and symptoms that crop up during treatment. We have the positive image center, the sharing less biller center which includes a lot of options for support groups including yoga, tai chi, couples counseling. I’ve barely scratched the surface to be honest, but it’s an exceptional group of highly professional but more importantly or, as importantly, compassionate individuals that come together to be as efficient as possible to help people to, not just live longer but to live better, to live well and as well as they can.
Melanie: What a lovely sentiment. Thank you so much for being with us, Dr. Cangin. You’re listening to City of Hope Radio. For more information on the Department of Supportive Care Medicine you can go to cityofhope.org. That’s cityofhope.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
The Importance of Self-Compassion During and Beyond Cancer Treatment
Melanie Cole (Host): If you’re coping with a stressful life event, you may not know where to turn. My guest today is Dr. Marisa Cangin and she’s a Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope. Welcome to the show, Dr. Cangin. When people are dealing with something stressful whether it’s cancer or a loved one with cancer, what’s the first thing you tell them about supportive care medicine? What is that?
Dr. Marisa Cangin (Guest): Thank you, Melanie. I’m happy to be here. The first thing I tell them is that they are absolutely not alone. Cancer can create a sense of isolation being sick and, in some ways, I completely respect that and I would never want to minimize somebody’s unique experience that truly only they know at a certain level. In many other ways, we don’t want them to feel isolated or unsupported and, not only by others, but I encourage them to be their number one support. They are the only person that is with them all the time 24/7. Who better to be their number one support?
Melanie: How do they do that because they feel like they’ve got to deal with treatments and side effects and maybe they still are working a job or have children or parents? There are so many stressors in our lives anyway, Dr. Cangin, how can you give yourself that little bit of self-love and compassion to accept what’s going on around you and deal with it?
Dr. Cangin: You’re right, Melanie. Life’s already so hard. Just by being a human, we struggle. We all suffer at times of varying degrees. There are various challenges that come and go. Hopefully, they go more than they come but, particularly when somebody is ill, it can be exceptionally hard to be loving toward oneself. Like you mentioned, self-love or the concept of self-compassion, it can be profoundly important, particularly when somebody is sick or going through treatment. That’s for the patient as well as those who care about the patient. I guess for the purposes of this interview, we can talk about the person going through the treatment. Self-compassion – the easiest definition is to treat yourself with the same kind of kindness and grace and care that you would treat those you care about. It could be your good friend, your loved one and that involves recognizing that we are human, we are imperfect, we do mess up at times. When we struggle, it comes with being human. A lot of times when we’re going through something really challenging, we conclude on some level, whether it’s conscious or not, that we have somehow failed. How we respond to that can determine whether we struggle more or whether we can actually grow during the struggle. Not deny it – face it head on. When sometimes somebody might think “Well, this shouldn’t have come up in my life”. On some level that implies that everybody else is living a perfect, problem free life. That type of thinking can cause additional suffering because people will feel more isolated from the rest of humanity. We know that deep, meaningful connections to others have protective factors, both emotionally and physically and also healing properties. When we feel connected to others, that’s the stuff that makes life worth living. We want people to feel more connected. If we have love towards ourselves, it gives us the courage to accept we all struggle and not kind of enter that negative feedback loop where we feel bad about feeling bad, conclude there’s something wrong with us for feeling that way and then go down a pathway that is exhausting. Especially when somebody is in treatment, they need all the energy that they can get. When we focus on the fact that everybody struggles and that would differ from “poor me” or “why me” like a place of self-pity, it significantly alters how we relate to those challenges. The door opens to grow. In no way is it putting on rose-colored glasses or fluffy, although it can sound kind of hokey and I’m not above hokey or cheesy if it works.
Melanie: I hear what you’re saying. We negative self-talk even in the best of times – especially women. We do this to ourselves all the time and when we’re going through cancer treatment or treatment for any illness, that negative self-talk can be magnified. How do you work with people to get them to tone down those voices and to love themselves even if it becomes a positive image thing, a self-esteem if they’re going through breast cancer treatment? How do you work with people to get them to change that?
Dr. Cangin: At least when I meet with people in therapy, the most important first step is for them to feel safe and heard. They need to feel that they are in a partnership or in a team and they are the leader of the team. When we have that rapport and that safe, comfortable space, then I can challenge them in a supportive way when I identify certain patterns in how they speak about their experience. I can challenge them to make a conscious decision to be more compassionate towards oneself. There are specific techniques that you’ll hear: cognitive behavioral therapy, meaning finding therapy, supportive intervention and mindfulness is a big one. You’ll hear about mindfulness and that’s really being fully present in your experience and noticing what’s going on including your emotions and your thoughts without judging them; without being critical. That goes against nature. We need judgement to make the decisions, particularly those that might be life-threatening. We don’t need to be judgmental toward ourselves and our thoughts and how we’re coping. It might not be an ideal situation and we can’t always change the factors that are part of the situation but what we can do is focus on what we can control. That makes the rest of it a little bit more bearable.
Melanie: How well-spoken you are. Tell us about the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope and what types of services do you offer?
Dr. Cangin: First of all, thank you very much for saying that. I am over the moon excited and privileged to be a member of this team. I joined City of Hope in January of the current year and the Department of Supportive Care Medicine is filled with various disciplines. It’s a large department. We have divisions within the department. I’m in the division of psychology and I apologize in advance as I won’t be able to name them all, which is a good problem because it means that there are so many of us. We have clinical social work, psychiatry, supportive care, physicians, nurse practitioners and many of them have very extensive experience in palliative care and helping people cope with pain and symptoms that crop up during treatment. We have the positive image center, the sharing less biller center which includes a lot of options for support groups including yoga, tai chi, couples counseling. I’ve barely scratched the surface to be honest, but it’s an exceptional group of highly professional but more importantly or, as importantly, compassionate individuals that come together to be as efficient as possible to help people to, not just live longer but to live better, to live well and as well as they can.
Melanie: What a lovely sentiment. Thank you so much for being with us, Dr. Cangin. You’re listening to City of Hope Radio. For more information on the Department of Supportive Care Medicine you can go to cityofhope.org. That’s cityofhope.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.