Exploring the World of Whole-Person Cancer Care
More than 40 years ago, long before integrative cancer care was mainstream, Michael Lerner helped to launch the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Over the years, he has sat with more than 2,000 souls navigating a cancer diagnosis, learning much about what it means to live—and die—with uncertainty and illness. One insight runs through each experience: cancer can be an invitation to heal our body, mind, and spirit.
This course includes some of the most compelling conversations Michael has hosted at Commonweal’s New School that explore whole-person cancer care. There are many, many more in our archives. We also include here What Matters Now: 7 Healing Letters to a Friend with Cancer, a new publication by Michael Lerner from Commonweal’s own Common Knowledge Press, which was published as part of Commonweal’s celebration of 50 Years of Healing Ourselves and the Earth. Join in Michael’s exploration with these integrative oncologists, healers, and patients who are leading the understanding and practice of whole-person cancer care. Photo: Hillary Goidell.
Course Material
What Matters Now: 7 Healing Letters to a Friend with Cancer by Michael Lerner
What Matters Now: 7 Healing Letters to a Friend with Cancer is a personal and practical guide born from over 40 years of intimate counsel with people facing cancer. Written by Commonweal founder Michael Lerner, these 7 letters distill what he's learned from sitting with more than 2,000 souls navigating a cancer diagnosis, and from his own encounters with life-threatening illness.
It's a companion, the kind of book you want on hand when a friend tells you they've just been diagnosed—something you can give them that says: "You're not alone. Here's what matters."
Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care
We invite you to join the 2025 Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care, a gathering that bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explored transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, and featured distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds.
Life Over Cancer: A New Model of Integrative Cancer Treatment
Join Host Michael Lerner in virtual conversation with Keith Block, MD—long regarded as the “father” of integrative oncology—about his model for integrative cancer treatment.
Easing Cancer Pain and Suffering
Join Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's director of Palliative Medicine Thomas Smith, MD, with Host Michael Lerner for a conversation about easing cancer pain and suffering.
Conversation at the Edge: A Spiritual Biography
Join Commonweal Cancer Help Program alumna Sue Mondello with Host Michael Lerner as they explore her hospice experience and the view from the edge of life.
Your Dance with Cancer: A Conversation with A Metastatic Breast Cancer Thriver
Join Host Michael Lerner in conversation with cancer coach Lindsay McDonell about her journey with cancer, her coaching work, and her work with the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC.
Wayne Jonas and Host Michael Lerner
Join Host Michael Lerner in this conversation with Dr. Wayne Jonas about how whole-person care can become part of routine oncology.
Kelly A. Turner and Host Michael Lerner
Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Kelly Turner, New York Times bestselling author of Radical Remission and Radical Hope. Kelly featured Michael in a Hay House 10-episode docuseries, Radical Remission, about cancer survivors who defied their diagnoses.
Michael Lerner, Miki Scheidel, Laura Pole, Nancy Hepp
Discover the newly launched CancerChoices.org site, designed to help cancer patients and care providers create personalized integrative treatment paths and receive the support of a healing community.
Janie Brown and Host Michael Lerner
Join Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Janie Brown, founder of Callanish Society—a grassroots non-profit organization in Vancouver, BC, for people living with, and dying from, cancer.
Donald Abrams and Host Michael Lerner
Join TNS Host Michael Lerner with CancerChoices Advisor Donald Abrams, MD, offering a webinar conversation on the launch of the new CancerChoices.org website.
