The research projects below fall under the research line 'Contingency, Culture & Oncology':
In Search of Stories: A research project on narrative meaning-making in patients with advanced incurable cancer
The aim of this research is to design an intervention that assists advanced cancer patients in their search for spiritual/existential meaning in life post diagnosis.
Exhibition PERHAPS: IN SEARCH OF STORIES
On Thursday, January 11, the special exhibition “PERHAPS: In search of stories” opened its doors in the outpatient clinic building of the VUmc location. The exhibition was organized in the context of the project In Search of Stories, which investigated how spiritual caregivers and artists can support patients within oncological care in their search for meaning and purpose, and rewriting their life story after diagnosis.
Staging Cancer: Participatory arts-based research into narrative meaning-making and identity formation by adolescents and young adults (AYAs) after cancer treatment
‘Staging Cancer’ aims to investigate whether – and if so, how – particpatory arts-based research may support cancer patients in the relational and socio-cultural process of narrative meaning-making during and beyond a diagnosis of (incurable) cancer.
The Art of Creating New Stories: Working with Art-Based Learning in Palliative Care (Art-PC)
The diagnosis of incurable cancer can lead to feelings of uncertainty and also to existential questions as patients are confronted with an experience of loss of meaning in their lives. Creative thinking can help in this situation to arrive at new perspectives.
Forgiveness at the end of life
End of life is the last phase of a person's existential journey. It is a very delicate moment, in which one's own life is reviewed by oneself, with the intention of integrating both successes and failures, in order to find a satisfactory life meaning and leave this world in peace. The need for forgiveness can become an essential task for this transition, however, there is little knowledge about the psychology of forgiveness and its importance in the end-of-life context, as well as how a terminal patient's request for forgiveness should be addressed by professionals.
'Contingency, Culture & Oncology': projecten uit het verleden
Spiritual care for cancer patients: the role of assisted structured reflection on ultimate life goals to improve quality of life and empowerment
“Spiritual care for cancer patients” (2010-2014) investigated whether an assisted structured reflection on one’s ultimate life goals and resources to deal with contingency improves the quality of life of cancer patients.
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