Everyone digests difficult news differently. Regardless when it hits you, whether it’s right at the beginning or when you’re getting ready to leave treatment, it is always distressing. “Being told you have breast cancer is a lot of people’s worst nightmare. What we do in the moment is put everything into perspective in order to help women not only be able to cope with it as they go through it but also to start to plan how they are going to get themselves through it,” says Guy Montgomery, director of Psychological Services at Mount Sinai’s Dubin Breast Center in New York City. In this video interview with Sonima.com founder, Sonia Jones, Montgomery describes the importance of providing patients with emotional support through an array of services, including couples therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and hypnosis, to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment, like pain and fatigue, and help minimize distress about the whole process.

Related: How Medical Social Workers Can Transform the Patient Experience

 

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