Speak the Language of Healing: A New Approach to B

Four womeneach diagnosed with breast cancerwere dismayed to learn that the conventional vocabulary for healing is a language characterized by a terminology of warfare and survivorship, with winners and losers. Speak the Language of Healing is the product of their collective experience in developing a new framework for the emotional stages of illness and a new means to talk about it. Their experiences reflect their four different spiritual backgroundsChristian, Jewish, Sufi, and TwelveStepbut they all felt the need to rewrite the combative language of illness with words emphasizing relationship, integration, and spirit. And although the authors were breast cancer patients, their search for meaning, purpose, and emotional balance is universal to anyone facing a lifethreatening disease.