Dancing with Cancer

Combining the personal and the practical, this book mixes the author’s own cancer story with the tools she discovered and adapted to support her treatment.

The wisdom and knowledge that Judy has learned from her experience with cancer can be our guide and coach.' - Bernie Siegel MD, Author of Love, Medicine & Miracles and The Art of Healing.

Dancing with Cancer focuses on the creation of a positive and proactive mindset with which to face the specific challenges and stages of cancer. It combines the author’s own experience of using what she calls Thought Work (including creative self-expression, healing energy work and meditation) with conventional cancer treatment in order to connect her intentions for healing to the everyday reality of a diagnosis of incurable bone-marrow cancer. The book offers guidance and inspiration not only to cancer sufferers as they undergo the various stages of treatment but also to those supporting them, enabling them to understand better the experience of the cancer patient as well as the possibilities of mind–body empowerment.

Part I allows the reader to gain inspiration and reassurance from Judy’s personal cancer story, as well as put into practice her Thought Work suggestions, which include revelatory questionnaires and journaling, creative exercises (such as drawing healing mandalas) and guided meditations. Part II gives a more detailed description of the Thought Work tools, including instructions for setting healing intentions, for using mindful breathing and for cultivating an attitude of gratitude, as well as meditations for a range of cancer situations and step-by-step instructions for creating artworks. Throughout the book are examples of Judy’s own transformative artworks, which she offers along with the reminder that any creative self-expression can be healing – it is not the outcome but the physical process of doing that matters, enabling multi-level transformation.“Judy Erel has a survivor personality and shares her experience with us. I have learned from my patients that self-induced healing is not a lucky spontaneous event. It takes courage and the willingness to change yourself and your life so your body gets the message. The wisdom and knowledge that she has learned from her experience with cancer can be our guide and coach. I could write a book just pointing out the wisdom she shares with us. She has learned what healing your life and body is about versus waging a war against cancer. She guides us and shows us the path to healing and how to awaken our body to the joy of life and understand the value and wisdom of our consciousness.”

—Bernie Siegel MD, Author of Love, Medicine and Miracles and The Art of Healing

"I was called to see Judy in 2007, when she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. From our first encounter, she was full of energy and ready to fight for her life. She had a plan. With her amazing willpower and optimism, she would replace the "bad" diseased cells in her body with "smiling" healthy cells. During her third chemotherapy treatment she developed a severe reaction and felt herself slipping away. She willed herself to life and pulled out of it. Side by side with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and the help of her loving children, Judy utilized all her resources and her artistic gift and "drew" herself to recovery. Her book will empower travellers setting out in the not so simple and not easy journey from sickness to health."

—Dr Naomi Rahimi-Levene, Haematologist and Head of the Blood Bank, Asaf Harofe Hospital Haematological Institute

"In Dancing with Cancer, Judy Erel weaves a unique theoretical and practical connection between mind and body that is invaluable. She succeeds in developing a powerful healing language that provides an opportunity for change and simple integration into daily life. As her story and exercises flow across the pages, the reader is taken through a process leading to the awareness of choice in life and a path strengthening the positive and the easy. A must for all therapists and anyone who wants to understand and successfully implement the magic of change."

—Ruty Bar MA, Movement Therapist, Senior Trainer in Feldenkrais Method Training programs and Educational Director
Judy Erel is a painter, a poet, an art teacher and a meditation guide. In 2009 she began providing guided meditations and mandala-drawing activities in the haematology and oncology departments of major Israeli hospitals supported by the Roche Pharmaceuticals ‘Roche Lends a Hand’ project. Her degrees include a BSc in human development from Cornell University, as well as a senior fine arts and art teachers degree. She has also completed MA studies in educational psychology.