How deep rest techniques can provide support when navigating a serious illness journey
Many people rely on my deep rest and nervous system regulation practices as a valued part of staying well and finding balance during life’s ups and downs. Some receive a recommendation from friends or colleagues who have experienced the benefits firsthand.
Others find their way to me through conversations with their medical or oncology support groups.
The shift towards holistic care
This aspect of my work has been incredibly important for many years though I have been reluctant to discuss it openly, in no small part due to concerns about distancing those who question the validity of complementary therapies alongside conventional medicine.
However, researchers and registered health practitioners increasingly recognise the need for holistic approaches to cancer and other serious illnesses. They are exploring ways for patients to live well, cope with treatment programmes, to thrive during remission or the many years of survival ahead, incorporating non-drug evidence-based therapies.
The opportunity to help people on a serious illness journey to move from fear to “I’ve got this” is the most privileged work I do.
Supporting the emotional journey
Helping someone to cope with the “scanxiety” – the anxiety faced every few months or years when counting down to the next scan or check-up, including during remission – or building calm resilience while dealing chemotherapy or other treatment side-effects, offer supportive, nourishing, effective opportunities.
A cancer journey or serious illness diagnosis is confronting, and it is a well-trodden path. With cancer alone, 25,000 people are diagnosed each year in New Zealand – a number set to increase with lifestyle and age considerations – and many of us will know the flood of emotions, fears, shifts in perspectives and physical challenges that can be overwhelming, and enduring.
How deep rest practices and nervous system regulation helps
Deep rest practices and nervous system regulation helps shift the body from a stressed “fight-or-flight” state to a relaxed, parasympathetic “rest and repair”, state. This shift helps reduce stress hormones, lower heart rate and blood pressure, and can support improved sleep, mental clarity and focus. It’s about helping people to cope with the waves of emotions, physical symptoms, and the concerns and that diagnosis and treatments can bring.
Conversations and treatments may focus intensely on the physical body, down to cellular function, yet caring for our whole self is as important.
Beyond the physical body
The calming and soothing practices I offer, help people appreciate that whilst the physical body may have cancer or illness, we are far more than our physical form. We have energy, spirit, and soul which need nourishment. Supporting all parts of yourself can help support the entire journey.
One benefit of these practices is that while physical effects are profound, it does not require significant movement or muscular effort. The practices, like the shift they create, are deep, yet subtle. It may be of comfort to know that I am experienced in accommodating PIC lines, stoma bags and chemo bottles and side effects that come from treatments. It is all possible.
Professional and personal perspectives
I would like to close with words from two people whose knowledge of cancer pathways and diagnosis far exceeds mine.
“The holistic model is now a necessity, not a nice to have” Dr Penny Kechaglioglu Consultant Clinical Oncologist & Chief Clinical Information Officer at UH Coventry & Warwickshire, UK, June 2025
“I was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer at 46 years of age. The shock was immense and significant anxiety set in. Thankfully I was recommended to go and see Sharon, the best decision I made at this really turbulent time.
With my chemo and other medications leaving me feeling really depleted, Sharon helps me to rest and sleep so much better. She’s taught me different breathing, rest and relaxation techniques that have helped immensely when I’m anxious around chemo and scan time. I have benefited so much under her care and guidance”
– J.R. (client)
Please feel free to contact me in confidence to find out how deep rest and the wider practices I offer can help support your health journey.
For more insights on nervous system regulation and approaches to deep rest and wellbeing, explore my other blogs.
