ABSTRACT
Among patients with advanced cancer, existential concerns are major issues that promote significant distress. For patients who are facing death, a sense of meaning and the preservation of that meaning are not only clinically and existentially important, but also central to therapeutic intervention. Nearly two decades ago, our research group at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center began to understand that a meaning-centered approach to psychosocial care was imperative to alleviate the existential distress that plagued many patients with advanced cancer. Based on Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy and the principles of existential psychology and philosophy, we developed Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy (MCP) to help patients with advanced cancer sustain or enhance a sense of meaning, peace, and purpose in their lives even as they approach the end of life. This chapter provides an overview of, and efficacy for, a meaning-centered approach to working with this population. We summarize the ever-growing body of research that has demonstrated the utility of MCP in improving spiritual well-being and quality of life, and reducing psychological distress and end-of-life despair. Specifically, this chapter provides the reader with an overview of our work developing and testing Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy in patients with advanced and terminal cancer. We offer an overview of the session content in MCP, including didactics, experiential exercises, and clinical techniques for delivering the intervention. Finally, a case presentation is used to illustrate the MCP framework.
