Tag: Cancer Support

With Laura Pole, RN, MSN, PCNS

Getting well never tasted so good! 

Now it’s your turn to pick the topics around healthy nourishment that you’d like Chef Laura to “riff”  on!  She’d also love you to challenge her to design, on the spot, custom menus to work around your biggest cooking/eating challenges.  Chef Laura will prepare lunch—-maybe even an ” Iron Chef” challenge where you tell her what you’d like to see her do with the ingredients in the bountiful Smith Center pantry and the local Farmer Market! Come with your questions, challenge, curiosity, playfulness, and appetite!

Chef Laura will be shopping at the U Street Farmer’s Market, located on the corner of 14th & U Streets NW, prior to class. Those interested can meet her at 9:00am on Saturday morning for a tour of the market and talk about choosing seasonal foods.

*Please Note: Every individual’s needs are unique. We aim to offer a variety of health-promoting options for each individual to consider, but do not prescribe the specific dietary content of any program for anyone.

Suggested donation: $25, includes a health-supportive meal and all recipes

Our programs are open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

About Laura Pole

Laura Pole, RN, MSN, comes with a diverse educational background including a Masters degree in nursing, chef certification, and professional music training. For over 20 years, she has been merging her careers as a health supportive chef, professional musician, oncology clinical nurse specialist, and a palliative care educator. Laura serves Smith Center in several ways: Director of Nourishment Education Programs, Director of Professional Trainings in Culinary Translation and Co-Creator/Coordinator of Patient Navigation Trainings. Laura is also on faculty for the nationally acclaimed Cancer-Fighting Kitchen workshops.

This retreat is designed to empower those living with Metastatic Breast Cancer to make life-affirming changes by providing tools and knowledge in a safe and caring community of others facing a similar diagnosis.

During the retreat, you will experience:

*A respite from the stresses of daily life with a cancer diagnosis

*Gentle, therapeutic yoga and meditation

*Delicious, whole foods, health-supportive lunch and

*An education session about eating with cancer

*A creativity session to tap into greater self-understanding in the face of cancer

*A community of other individuals who have shared experiences

Who: This retreat is designed for women who have been diagnosed with Stage IV/Metastatic breast cancer.

Cost: FREE, thanks to the generous support of the GW Cancer Center.

SPACE IS LIMITED – Click here to apply today!

If you are interested in attending one of our upcoming retreats, please fill out and submit the online application by visiting this page. Your responses will be kept confidential and only shared with the retreat staff. If you prefer, we can also send you a copy of the form to be completed offline and submitted – please contact retreats@smithcenter.org if interested.

with Lauren Cates, LMT & Christina Tian, LAC, CMD, DACM, BSBA, Dipl. OM

Grief Loss Mary Anne Cook Smith Center

Learn more about how the benefits of oncology massage, acupuncture, & acupressure in the treatment of cancer and management of cancer side-effects.

About Lauren Cates, LMT

Lauren is one of Healwell’s founders, its Board Chair and Executive Director. Lauren speaks around the world on a variety of topics related to integrative medicine, emotional self-care for practitioners and the mechanics and politics of introducing massage therapy into clinical settings.

They* have been participating in research, teaching and developing curriculum for massage therapy courses focused on hospital-based practice, oncology massage and end of life care since 2007.  Lauren is passionate about elevating the profession of massage therapy and also about broader and more seamless integration of massage therapists into mainstream healthcare.

*Lauren identifies as gender non-conforming and uses the pronouns they, their, and them when being referred to in the third person.

About Christina Tian, DACM, MAOM, L.AC., DIPL. OM, CMD

Dr. Christina Tian is a second generation practitioner specializing in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. She first encountered acupuncture at the age of six; watching as her father cared for his patients as if they were his own family.  His dedication to Traditional Chinese Medicine and for his patients inspired her to pursue this healing path.  Her father, Xiaoming Tian, L.Ac., CMD,  was appointed as the first clinical consultant on acupuncture at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.
Her clinical experience spans adolescent, adult and geriatric medicine.  Her experience treating patients at the Elder Service Plan of the North Shore assisted her development of gentle acupuncture techniques that all patients young and old appreciate.
Dr. Tian was recruited by Sibley Memorial Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine, to spearhead acupuncture services in a new Integrative Health program pilot.  During the pilot, she offered Traditional Chinese Medicine services such as acupuncture and acupressure to oncology patients. Dr. Tian continues to provide treatments to Sibley patients and participates in advanced oncology education and training at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
§  Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, focusing on evidence-based integrative medicine approaches.

§  Master’s Degree in Oriental Medicine, specializing in Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, from the New England School of Acupuncture, the oldest acupuncture school in the United States

§  Post-graduate work at Beijing University’s First Teaching Hospital under Prof. De Ying Wang, MD, CMD§  Certification in Clean Needle Technique by the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

§  Nationally board certified by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Chinese Herbology and Acupuncture

§  Certified in Ear Acupuncture from the Auriculotherapy Certification Institute.

§  Certified by the World Federation of Chinese Medicine (Beijing) as a Doctor of Chinese Medicine

§  Editorial Board Member of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine and World Congress of Chinese Medicine

§  Licensed to practice acupuncture in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

§  Member of the American Association of Oriental Medicine, and the Acupuncture Societies of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

§  Chief Acupuncturist at Sibley Memorial Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Through her upbringing and exposure to Chinese Medicine she is an avid cook and loves looking at the medicinal properties of foods and spices and is currently working on a book utilizing ancient Chinese nutritional therapy for modern use.  On weekends, you may find her volunteering at the local farmers market where she shares Chinese nutritional advice and recipes with patrons. Dr. Tian travels to further develop her understanding of different medical systems while regularly practicing Qigong.  Dr. Tian works and volunteers for various acupuncture societies in both the United States and China and participates in international Oriental Medicine conferences to ensure she bridges cutting edge findings with the ancient wisdom of this profession.

To schedule an appointment, please contact 301.530.5308 at her Bethesda location or 202-660-7775 at her Sibley Integrative Medicine location.

With David “Lucky” Goff & Wendy Miller

Smith Center will be offering an online Healing Circle via Zoom in the spring of 2019 with David “Lucky” Goff and Wendy Miller. Those who have been most gravely tested by life have the most loss, and potentially the most to gain. Yet it is in how we respond to these conditions – which come in many complex and subtle forms such as grief, illness, injury, injustice, war, and other unknown heartbreaks – that defines us and defines our life.

This bi-monthly circle is an opportunity to create a cyberspace community, connecting with others as we learn to grow through the hardships we have experienced in life, not in spite of them, but because of them. Healing becomes a by-product from our shared culture of community, connection, and mystery. In such a community, our flames of creativity can be lit, as we discover ourselves as more sensitized and adaptive human beings.

This Healing Circle meets online on Wednesdays twice per month from 1:30pm – 3:00pm EST / 10:30am-12:00pm PST. 

Pre-registration is required prior to attending your first group and receiving Zoom connection information.  Please RSVP via the link above or to Kiersten at 202.483.8600 / kiersten@smithcenter.org.

 

About David Goff

David “Lucky” Goff, Ph.D., M.F.T., served as adjunct faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, where he employed large group processes to promote community and personal development. David also assists organizations, including therapeutic and spiritual communities, in their quests to create and sustain genuine community. His research into the “psychological sense of community” is the first to examine and describe the conditions that facilitate collective consciousness.  In 2003 David had a brain aneurism. As a result of his stroke, and the onset of a rare brain syndrome, he nearly died and ended up permanently disabled. This experience had a transformational effect on David, which made him “Lucky,” and cued him into how radically connected all things are. This broader awareness now informs his approach toward what it means to be human. He maintains a psychotherapy practice specializing in psycho-spiritual development. He also writes extensively about a psychology of interdependence, community, elders and the conditions that lead to a social and ecological sense of connection. He can be reached at dg1140@sonic.net .

About Wendy Miller

Moving here many years ago from the SF Bay Area, my relationship with Commonweal led me to Barbara Smith Coleman. I am proud to have been part of an early group of people with Shanti Norris who met with Barbara to envision the cancer retreats, a healing center, and gallery for Smith Center. Years later when my late husband Gene Cohen was facing metastatic prostate cancer, he went to Commonweal for his cancer retreat.  The gift of community support, reflection, and care guided the choices we made through the many years of living with cancer in our family body. I became a widow in 2009.

Wendy Miller is an expressive arts therapist, artist, and writer living in Kensington Md. In 2016, she published the book, Sky Above Clouds: Finding our way through creativity, aging, and illness, about her life and work with her late husband.  It is a spiritual treatise on love and creativity during life’s major transitions. Wendy Miller can be reached at wendmiller1@gmail.com.

Registration for this program is full. If you would like to be added to the waitlist for this event, please send an email to: erin@smithcenter.org.

In Partnership with Sephora and The GW Cancer Center

Through this free, hands-on class for cancer patients and survivors, learn soothing skincare routines and makeup tricks to help restore glow, and the appearance of brows and lashes that may be affected by cancer treatment. The goal is to leave the class feeling confident and empowered and there is no expectation for you to purchase products.

Limited to 12 participants. The workshop will take place at the Sephora on Capitol Hill: 380 7th St SE, Washington DC, 20003.

 

Presented in partnership with Cancer Support Community

This workshop will raise awareness among patients and caregivers about diagnoses, treatment options, managing side effects, coping with the psychosocial impact of neuroendocrine and carcinoid tumors, and fostering constructive dialogue with their healthcare team.

Presenters will include Dr. Giuseppe Esposito, Chief of Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT and Professor of Radiology at the Medstar Georgetown University Hospital, and Dr. Jaydira del Rivero, endocrine oncologist in the Pediatric Oncology Branch (POB) at the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research.

Enrollment space is limited and we expect this workshop to fill quickly,  so register early to guarantee your place! To RSVP, please click the link at the top of this page, call 202.483.8600 or email programs@smithcenter.org.

About Giuseppe Esposito, MD, MBA

Giuseppe Esposito, MD, is board certified in nuclear medicine. He sees patients at two MedStar clinics the Reservoir Road clinic in Washington, DC, and the Olney, Maryland clinic. Dr. Esposito is the Chief of Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT and Professor of Radiology at the Medstar Georgetown University Hospital. His specialties include PET/CT and SPECT/CT imaging of tumors, cardiac diseases, epilepsy, dementias and Parkinson’s disease.

In his clinics, he also performs diagnostic imaging and treatment of thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism, prostate bone metastases, radioembolization of metastatic liver cancers, and PRRT treatment of Neuroendocrine tumors. Dr. Esposito is very active in research and in conducting clinical trials. He is also involved in the professional Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. He serves as a peer reviewer for multiple medical journals, including Frontiers in Oncology, Frontiers in Cancer Imaging and Diagnosis. Dr. Esposito enjoys talking with his patients and answering their questions. Many patients are not familiar with nuclear medicine, so he takes great care to explain the procedures to make patients feel comfortable educating them on the benefits and the potential side effects.

Dr. Esposito is a native of Italy and has lived in the U.S. since 1992. He travels to Italy frequently, with his wife and two daughters, to see the rest of his family in Naples.

About Jaydira Del Rivero, M.D.

Dr. Del Rivero earned her medical degree from the University of Veracruz in Veracruz, Mexico and completed her internship at General Hospital Institute of Security and Social Services for Government Employees, also in Veracruz. Following a year of field service at the Center of Studies and Health Services at the University of Veracruz. Dr. Del Rivero completed her internal medicine residency at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center/NYU-Langone Medical Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Del Rivero completed a fellowship in endocrinology at The Inter-Institute Endocrinology Training Program (IETP) at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) where she was part of a research team developing clinical trials for pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma, rare tumors that form within and outside the adrenal glands and are linked to a range of inherited syndromes. She then joined as Assistant Professor at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care (MECCC) where she focused on all endocrine tumors such as thyroid cancer, parathyroid tumors, advanced gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, adrenal tumors, pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma and other endocrine malignancies.

She subsequently completed a second fellowship in oncology at the National Cancer Institute with a research focus on endocrine malignancies such as medullary thyroid cancer. Dr. Del Rivero is board certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and board eligible in Oncology.

She is developing the Rare Tumor Natural History study and Rare Tumor Clinic to: 1) serve as an umbrella protocol for patients with rare solid tumors of interest to the CCR and for patients who may be candidates for CCR early clinical trials and, 2) to provide the basis for the development of therapeutic interventions, prevention/screening guidelines, endpoints for future clinical trials, and patient-reported outcome measures.

She is also working on tumor immunology and the development of novel immunotherapy approaches for medullary thyroid cancer and targeted therapies for other endocrine malignancies such as advanced pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma.

with Jennifer Bires, LICSW

Although we will all die, it’s a difficult thing to talk about, especially when faced with a life-threatening illness.  This group discussion will help you think of some of the necessary, practical considerations.  We will also take time to discuss how death impacts us emotionally and relationally.

About Jennifer Bires

Jennifer Bires is a licensed clinical social worker, who works with people affected by cancer. She received her Master’s in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Jennifer knows how distressing a cancer diagnosis can be for patients and their families. Her goal as an oncology social worker is to help patients and family members adjust to the emotional impact of a diagnosis.  Jennifer specializes in working with young adults, caregivers and patients who have advanced disease. She strives to help patients and families maintain a high quality of life in the face of their illness.

With Susi Wyss

Led by a therapeutic writing facilitator, this session is designed for people living with or affected by illness. Tap into the healing benefits of writing using prompts and other exercises in a playful and supportive environment. No writing experience necessary, just an open mind.

All materials will be provided, but you are welcome to bring any journals or notebooks that you would like to use.

About Susi Wyss

Susi Wyss was born in Washington, D.C. to Swiss parents. When she turned seven, her family relocated to Abidjan, Ivory Coast for three years—a period that would have a lasting impact on her view of the world.

After graduating from Vassar College, Susi pursued a career in international health, hoping she could make a positive difference in places like the ones she’d seen as a child. She earned a master’s degree in public health from Boston University and joined the Peace Corps, working on a child survival project in the Central African Republic. For the next 16 years, she visited and worked in more than a dozen African countries, eventually living for another three years in Abidjan. It was during this second stint in the Ivory Coast that she began writing fiction, much of it inspired by people she’d met, stories she’d heard, and experiences she’d had in Africa.

Upon her return to the U.S., while continuing her work in international health, Susi earned a master’s degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. She subsequently took a two-year sabbatical to write The Civilized World, a novel-in-stories set in Africa that was published by Henry Holt in April 2011.

Since completing her debut book, Susi has been working on a second novel while also working as an editor at Jhpiego, a Baltimore-based international health organization. Her stories, including several from The Civilized World, have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Bellevue Literary Review, Bellingham Review, and The Massachusetts Review. She has served as an associate editor for the Potomac Review, and her writing has been recognized by awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.

with Jenna Perkins, RN, WHNP-BC

Please join us for a discussion as we explore the ways that a cancer diagnosis can affect your sex life. You can expect to learn about tools that can help prevent and treat common conditions that contribute to discomfort with intercourse. We will discuss both medication and lifestyle management options. Come prepared with questions you and your partner have but haven’t had the opportunity to discuss with your healthcare providers. Patients and partners are welcome to attend!

About Jenna Perkins

Jenna Perkins, RN, WHNP-BC, is a board certified WomenGÇÖs Health and Gender Related Nurse Practitioner. Originally from Detroit, MI, Jenna completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She worked on a number of research studies as an undergraduate and became a clinical trials research nurse after graduating. In this role she worked on infectious disease protocols including Gene Therapy trials investigating the cure for HIV. She went on to complete her Masters in WomenGÇÖs Health and Gender Related Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania Jenna joined the MFA as the Pelvic Floor Nurse Practitioner. She manages all areas of female urology. Among these are frequent UTIs, Overactive Bladder, Incontinence, Pelvic Organ Prolapse, Pelvic Pain, and Female Sexual dysfunction. She provides non-surgical treatment for these conditions and offers alternatives to medication management where available. Jenna also provides teaching for clinic patients helping patients to learn things such as self-catheterization and correct kegel exercise. Jenna is an active member of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA) and Nurse Practitioners in WomenGÇÖs Health (NPWH).

with Jonathan Gilbert, L.Ac.

Regardless of how strong we are able to be, a cancer diagnosis creates a fundamental shift in our lives. Be it a patient, a caregiver or a colleague; the stress of this change can be difficult.

Jonathan Gilbert will be looking at this stress through the lens of ancient Chinese medical philosophy, examining strategies that enable us to cope more fully with this change.

About Jonathan Gilbert, L.Ac.

Mr. Gilbert’s journey into Asian philosophy began with martial arts at the age of 9. By 13 he began training in movement and meditation at the Kitaido School of Movement in England, under the guidance of Head Instructor Ken Waight. From the ages of 16-18 Jonathan also studied Shiatsu massage, a Japanese form of healing, and earned his diploma from the British School of Oriental Therapy and Movement in 1988.

In 1991, Jonathan Gilbert enrolled at the London Academy of Oriental Medicine London (LAOM), England, one of the foremost schools of Oriental Medicine in Europe. Graduating from the Vietnamese school in 1995, Mr. Gilbert pursued a masters study in “Stems and Branches Theory” with world-renowned Professor Truong Thin, the Director of Traditional Medicine for South Vietnam. Jonathan lived in Vietnam while completing his post-graduate training at The Traditional Medical Institute (TMI), a 500-bed state teaching hospital Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. At TMI, Jonathan worked in collaboration with Western-trained medical doctors, observing the blending of Oriental Medicine with Western medicine.

Jonathan’s first private practice as an Oriental Medicine physician began in London in 1996. In 1998, he moved to the United States and eventually set up practices in Towson, MD, and Arlington, VA. Board-certified in the U.S. in both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), Mr. Gilbert has served as the Senior Consultant of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

Jonathan’s passion for creating an integrated medical clinic came to fruition in 2005, with the opening of The Gilbert Clinic in the Bethesda area, near Washington, D.C. The clinic blended Western Medicine with TCM and psychotherapy by using traditional Asian medical principles. For 5 years this model proved incredibly powerful in the treatment of chronic illness.

Since 2011, The Gilbert Clinic’s focus has been dedicated to providing excellent traditional Vietnamese / Chinese herbology and acupuncture, Jonathan’s Gilbert’s expertise and passion.