Coaching is not currently commissioned for patients on the NHS and Kora founder, Fiona Stimson volunteers on a team of coaches who specialise in supporting cancer patients and their families.
Fiona is also currently part of a PhD study being conducted in conjunction with The British Psychological Society to determine cancer coaching standards at The Fountain Centre a charity within the Royal Surrey Hospital.
Also published in Coach Magazine
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Many people describe the experience of learning they have cancer as feeling that their world had stopped in that moment. They describe the ‘petrifying’ fear of not knowing what is going to happen, facing surgery and treatments is traumatising and levels of fear and anxiety can hit an all-time high.
Coaching helps cancer patients and their families from diagnosis and treatment to living with. and beyond cancer, including metastatic disease.
Coaching aligns holistically with conventional treatment and other therapies to support and empower patients by being heard and understood. It offers time and space for them to express their feelings without judgement or advice, helps them to build strength and courage, to develop a greater understanding of themselves and their situation and create inner resourcefulness and resilience.
Patients can feel many things including a loss of control, acceptance difficulty, anxiety, body confidence issues, loss of identity, fear of the future and survivorship guilt. It’s important to simply ‘be’ with whatever comes up during the coaching process and empathy, kindness and compassion are a key part of the process, alongside an appropriate dose or humour.
Removing limiting beliefs ‘my mum died of this so I will too’ and similar beliefs can be helped with NLP and other techniques which are used to enable the patient to think and manage in a different, more balanced and positive way.
Understanding and removing negative and unhelpful emotional states, improving mental stability to manage thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviours.
Working through grieving for their ‘old self’ and learning to create a new identity with new possibilities.
Building post-surgery confidence, acceptance and appreciation.
Supporting clients to work during and post-treatment as well as explore career changes.
Helping clients manage their pain (sensation) and reducing the way they view and experience it.
When facing a diagnosis of cancer and chronic illness learning to be in the now is key to calmness.
Becoming immersed in the intensity of what’s going can be detrimental to wellbeing and mental health so learning to relax, breathe & refocusing attention is valuable.
The mind/ body connection is a powerful one through which spiritual, emotional and behavioural factors can contribute to imbalances in the body and it is important to understand and release these, taking action to re-establish balance, held prevent illness and improve health outcomes.
“When I first met Fiona, I was in pieces. I didn’t have answers to my questions, I was scared, and this was severely affecting my life and ability to cope.
Coaching helped me identify my unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and change my thinking to be more positive and empowering. Change was driven by me to stay on my own journey rather than that of others and I’ve re-wired my old unhelpful habits into new, useful ones and built my mental and emotional strength and capabilities. I’m now able to tune into my unconscious mind, listen to it and work with it to overcome situations I find unsettling”.
Sometimes, when life is different to the one we had hoped for, we can find ourselves in unknown territory, managing a whole gathering of heightened emotions. This is particularly relevant when we are faced with a potentially life changing health event that results in a longer-term condition. Coming to peace
We’re featured in Premier in Magazine Our founder, Fiona, was recently interviewed for the summer issue of Surrey, Berkshire and London’s leading luxury publication – out now! Share on Fiona was given the opportunity to share with the readers of Surrey’s Premier Magazine the benefits of therapeutic coaching. Across a double page spread
The word ‘self-care’ is thrown around so often these days and too often it’s misunderstood. Self-care is fundamental to the work we do with all our clients, but we often find they start from a belief that self-care is self-indulgent, when actually that’s far from true.
Kora is a bespoke coaching and therapeutic experience that marries integrative and evidence based techniques including, Clinical Hypnotherapy, Mindfulness, NLP and CBT, grounded within a holistic and nature connected, sensorial experience.
We specialise in empowering women with cancer and chronic illness to live more, whilst navigating some of the biggest health challenges in their lives. The Kora experience also enables those facing significant other life challenges or loss, to redefine life on your terms.
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