ABSTRACT
The professional, though he or she cares about the patient, may resist getting close enough to recognize, understand, and share in the patient's suffering. There are many reasons why people suffer with serious and terminal illness. DeBellis et al. proposed these reasons: pain, loss, disability, and failure to achieve relief from symptoms, the complexity of treatment, the effects of disease on families and friends, unfavorable prognoses, and the expense of treatment. Patrick learned that Mayling was worried about what would happen to her husband when she died. Her suffering was certainly related to her physical pain, but it also was caused by the real, human dilemmas that surfaced in the process of her living and dying. As a helping professional, Patrick needed to be very skillful in exploring and addressing the psychosocial issues that were causing distress in Mayling's life.
