Dear Friend

We believe you have within you the potential to change and, sometimes, to transform the experience of living with cancer. The power of your intention to heal is the most precious resource you bring to intentional healing work.

The special power of Healing Circles and the Commonweal Cancer Help Program is that we can do this together, in a circle of equally dedicated participants and staff, and without any distractions from the outside world. Our individual healing work also benefits us profoundly when we are committed to the healing of those on the journey with us.

Commonweal Cancer Help Program ›

Bolinas, California. An intensive week-long residential retreat for people with cancer and their significant others

 

Healing Circles ›

Cancer social support circles and resources

 

Our approach in Healing Circles and the Cancer Help Program is not the only way. You may find other outstanding circles where people come together to heal with cancer. True healing circle work requires wise agreements about ground rules, experienced facilitation, and strong bonds of group safety and trust.

Helping others with intentional healing is an ancient art, reborn in every age. The impulse to share the healing experience—to help others face what we have faced—is built into the human psyche.

For many people, a key dimension of healing is to work in a circle of companions who share your wound and share your strong intention to find healing.

The best way to help others heal is not to tell them what they should do. Rather, you start with generous listening. As Parker Palmer, the great Quaker educator, puts it: Do not advise them. Do not try to fix them. Do not tell them what they should do. Do not try to be wise or show off your expertise in healing. Simply be there for them, a witness to their exploration of their own path.

Wishing you well,

Michael

Learn more

,,,
About the Author

Michael Lerner

Michael Lerner is co-founder of Commonweal and co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, The New School at Commonweal, and CancerChoices.

Learn More

Michael Lerner is co-founder of Commonweal and co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, The New School at Commonweal, and CancerChoices. He has led more than 200 Commonweal Cancer Help Program retreats to date. His book Choices In Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer was the first book on integrative cancer care to be well received by prominent medical journals as well as by the patient and integrative cancer care community.

Michael Lerner Co-Founder