Their Stories Matter: Effectively Counseling Clients with Breast Cancer

In the early 1980s, when a woman was diagnosed with breast cancer it felt like a death sentence. At least that was the way I felt, as a 10-year-old, when my mother told me that she had breast cancer. I immediately thought, “My mom is going to die.” After the shock of the initial diagnosis, my mother discussed treatment. She would have a mastectomy, and all of her lymph nodes would be removed. The results of her surgery would set the course for additional treatment.