When a cancer patient has been told that their condition is terminal, there are many choices to make about approaching the end of life. Common medical treatments involve an increase in pain-killing and sleeping medications. However, patients and family caretakers can work with hospice care to use alternative medications or techniques that do not limit or distort conscious awareness so heavily during the final stage. The main purpose for these alternative treatments include easing pain and suffering and encouraging natural sleep.
Visualization
In the final stages of cancer, patients often sleep irregularly, and may drift into dreaming states with their eyes open. Visualization meditations harness this natural occurrence by guiding the patient into relaxing or pleasant visual trances. This activity helps with pain management, improves mood and may assist with the psychological process of dying.
DreamWork
Healing imagery also worked when it arises spontaneously in dreams. Tallulah Lyons, a dreamworker on staff at the Cancer Wellness Center at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, GA, leads weekly dream groups for cancer patients. According to her four-year study, all of the cancer patients who attended dreamwork sessions report decreased feelings of anxiety and stress, and 80% continue to incorporate dreamwork into their visualization therapy sessions after training.
Humor Therapy
Another way to ease pain and suffering naturally is Humor Therapy. This is simply a daily habit of bringing humor "into the room." Hospice workers may have prepared material on hand, such as videos of stand-up comics or funny books. Group humor therapy sessions, on the other hand, focus on the ability of seeing the humor in everyday life. According to the American Cancer Society, laughter not only creates a sense of hope and well-being, but can also increase pain tolerance.
Music Therapy
Music therapy has been integrated into many healing treatment plans for its ability to increase well being and psychological harmony. For terminal cancer, listening to music also reportedly helps with chronic pain tolerance. In a 2008 article published in Psychiatric Services, researchers found success when integrating music therapy with short cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) sessions. In their pilot program of 39 critically-ill cancer patients, cancer distress decreased by 46%. Researchers also note that the music therapy gave the patients a chance to discuss their feelings about topics such as their fear of death and hopelessness, as well as faith, family and meaning in life.
