sharingVillage Cancer Survivor Groups is a program for life.

We are a unique entity in the field of cancer treatment.

We are a privately funded, non-profit organization dedicated to helping cancer survivors and their families.

Our service is completely free
- there are no costs to either group participants or the hosting medical centers.

Designed as an integrative compliment to individual medical programs and based on the principles of universalization, validation and humanization. sharingVillage completes the circuit of healing, optimizing the effects and benefits of oncology practices by creating a community-based network of fellow survivors, including medical, psychiatric and other mental health professionals, and providing integrative services and resources to its participants.

The comfort received and given through our programs provide a sense of control over a seemingly uncontrollable and ultimately challenging situation.

Our program is grounded in the philosophy of compassionate healing by helping, which extends to all program participants and manifests through the concept of the "wounded healer", an idea central to both modern and traditional forms of therapy. Our group facilitators are themselves survivors, and understand the enormity of their fellow group participantsí experience on all levels. Having walked the path that the newly diagnosed must face, our facilitators are that much better equipped to communicate with, comfort, nurture and be nurtured by their fellow survivors. Many survivors choose to continue their personal journey of recovery and healing by returning to the sharingVillage Groups program as co-facilitators or to mentor new group members.

sharingVillage is an interconnected, interactive community.

Participants begin the process of healing at the time of their diagnosis and are introduced to groups with other chronologically diagnosed patients of the participating medical practice. Ideally, patients are started after biopsy, and before surgery, the sharingVillage program is highly adaptable to the special needs of cancer survivors and their families. We will accept individuals as requested. Groups are led by a facilitator with a mental health background and a co-facilitator who has passed through the critical phase of their illness. Both facilitators are wounded healers.

The small group form is ideal, and greatly beneficial to all participants. Group bonding is immediate as members respond our open, compassionate environment allowing for a greater release of feelings, thoughts and fears. sharingVillage shines a light through uncharted terrain: valuable information is shared, and as a result members are better able to begin negotiating the health care system on their own behalf, becoming less fearful and more confident in their ability to navigate the treatment process. A reduction of overall stress accompanies this growing sense of control, and allows the healing process to more easily unfold.

Referring physicians, when invited, happily sit in on group meetings. Patient-doctor relations are improved as the physicians find they relate to their patients in a completely different manner within the comforting group environment. One physician has remarked that the sharingVillage Groups program "reminds him of why [he] got into medicine in the first place." In addition, when desirable, groups can be co-led with in-house nursing staff generating a powerful group leadership union of hospital staff, survivors and mental health professionals.

sharingVillage Cancer Survivor Groups programs is NOT psychotherapy, and it is not superficial. It recognizes the challenges patients face, and is highly adaptable to individual needs. By confronting these challenges, sharingVillage proves to be an invaluable resource for its members. Since sharingVillage groups are "in house", there is no slippage between medical treatment and group or individual support. The group facilitator becomes the navigator for all non-medical outside services, filling the void often left by the medical process alone.

Further streamlining the treatment process, sharingVillage maintains a network of "community volunteer counsels" whose job it is to continue coordination of services with other non-profits, avoiding duplication and wasted resources. For example, transportation to and from treatment and group meetings is available, as are several in-home services which seek to maintain balance and reduce strain when a family is in crisis. We provide meetings with spouses, children and family friends. sharingVillage maintains a wig library. In addition, sharingVillage offers its members many diverse, integrative treatment options that supplement and amplify medical care including yoga, meditation, nutritional guidance and massage, all at no cost to group participants.

We do not solicit our survivors.

In it's continuing efforts to improve resources and strengthen the feeling of community for its members, sharingVillage is constructing a 24-hour online communication forum through our site, expanding the organic network of healing even further.

sharingVillage Cancer Survivor Groups is a Program for Life.

Learn more about sharingVillage