About Connie Holmes

During my training, when I first met children who had cancer, I felt drawn to working with people with this disease and with their loved ones. During the last 17 years, I have counseled many people with cancer. I understand how frightened, alone and overwhelmed people can feel. Working with a seasoned psycho-oncologist can ease these aspects of the journey.

In my sessions, we talk about how the disease is affecting them. We talk about their fears of pain, how their bodies are changing and their inability to keep up with their usual lives. We talk about what they now most value and how to honor it. We talk about how they are relating to their loved ones. We talk about their fear of death. Being diagnosed with cancer immediately changes lives. Now days are filled with countless medical appointments. People wonder whom to tell and what to say. They sometimes find others’ responses painful.

How to treat their illness requires many decisions of them. We discuss and evaluate all the options, conventional and complementary. We consider how each might affect their life. Sometimes people are cured. Often there is remission and they can put cancer aside, even for years. But remission can end. Now we work through feelings and choices—preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

My late husband David lived with prostate cancer for six years. We explored every way to allow him to continue working. Finally, the options ran out. We who loved him helped him face his final time. This loss has brought me closer to all the issues.

Over the years, I have come to understand that each person makes this journey in their own unique way. For me, it is a privilege to support them in whatever way helps. I believe I am a steady, honest and reliable ally and guide for people in this most trying of times.