ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact of cancer on the psychotherapist and his or her clinical practice, whether the psychotherapist is working alone or with colleagues in group, couple, or family therapy. Psychotherapists and their patients normally have a mutual agreement to co-operate with each other in the interests of the patient’s well-being and mental health. The personal and professional choice of the therapist not to make the facts of his or her illness known by others beyond immediate family or colleagues may, of course, account for the paucity of published accounts on the ill psychotherapist. The psychotherapist as wounded healer can help the patient with his or her wounds as long as there is a balanced attitude whereby the psychotherapist knows that he or she is both vulnerable and able to survive, as for a while the patient needs the therapist to be emotionally stronger.
