Counseling Through Cancer
My counseling services are offered through AMANDA DODSON | COUNSELING AND CARE PLANNING LLC.
Clarity for today.
Courage for tomorrow.
Whether you've just received a diagnosis, are receiving treatments, are pausing treatment, are living with metastatic disease, or are adjusting to life after treatment, cancer impacts far more than your health.
It changes your identity.
Your relationships.
Your confidence.
Your plans.
Your sense of certainty.
You don't have to navigate those changes alone.
Healing is more than physical.
Cancer treatments focus on healing the body.
Counseling focuses on the whole person.
While doctors help you manage your disease, our work together focuses on the emotional, relational, and existential challenges that accompany it.
Sometimes healing means finding peace in uncertainty.
Sometimes it means repairing relationships.
Sometimes it means grieving the life you expected while discovering what still gives your life meaning today.
Healing isn't waiting until cancer is over.
It can happen every day.
Who I Work With:
Newly Diagnosed
Making sense of a changed reality, and what comes next.
In Treatment
Navigating medical complexities while staying connected to yourself.
Paused Treatment
Reprioritizing and adapting to a new normal.
Metastatic
Focusing on personal values and living fully amid ongoing uncertainty.
In Remission
Recalibrating to a life with high expectations but little guidance.
For people who have experienced a cancer diagnosis,
our work together can help with:
navigating changes in self-identity
redefining priorities
processing intense emotions
preparing for and accepting test results
weighing risks, benefits, and burdens of treatments
setting goals aligned with your priorities
managing physical symptoms
improving communication in relationships
living with uncertainty
establishing healthy boundaries
strengthening self care and support systems
Why Work With a Cancer-Focused Counselor?
Cierra McNamara, MSW, LSW
Palliative Care Social Worker
Member of Colorado Cancer Coalition (CCC), Association of Oncology Social Workers (AOSW), American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS)
A cancer diagnosis brings challenges that extend far beyond medical treatment.
My work is informed by more than two decades alongside people living with cancer – as an oncology massage therapist, mindfulness instructor, and palliative care social worker.
This experience helps me understand not only the emotional impact of cancer, but also the realities of treatment, the language of healthcare, and the ways illness can reshape identity, relationships, and everyday life.
Together, we create a space where your whole Self – not just your diagnosis – is welcomed with curiosity, compassion, and respect.
What to Expect
Your sessions are a space where you can be honest and authentic.
You don't have to be positive. You don’t need to have the right words. You don't need to protect me from your emotions.
Some visits are filled with conversation, others with silence.
Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry.
Sometimes we simply make space for what has been too heavy to carry alone.
Together we'll move at your pace, exploring what matters most to you and discovering ways to live with greater clarity, courage, and compassion. No matter the road ahead.
My counseling services are offered through AMANDA DODSON | COUNSELING AND CARE PLANNING LLC.
Survivorship Counseling
Living Between Gratitude and Grief
Survivorship is complicated.
You may be in surveillance, undergoing maintenance therapies, or be in complete remission.
You might feel suspended between "healthy" and "sick."
Those around you may assume the journey is behind you, while you continue living with side effects and uncertainty.
Healing doesn't need to wait until treatment ends. But sometimes that's when emotions finally have room to emerge.
When the continuity and community of your healthcare team fades away, you’re left with an uncertain road ahead.
This is where survivorship counseling comes in.
If You’re Wondering...
Why do I still feel anxious when treatment is over?
Why does every ache make me worry the cancer has returned?
How do I stop living from one scan to the next?
Why don't I feel like celebrating?
Why do I feel disconnected from the person I used to be?
How do I trust my body again?
Why do I feel guilty when others didn't survive?
What does "normal" even mean now?
If these questions feel familiar, you're not alone.
The goal isn't to return to your old life.
It's to create a meaningful life that can include everything you've lived through.
Together, our sessions can help you:
rebuild trust in your body while honoring everything it has endured
process the emotional impact of treatment that may not have surfaced until now
navigate scan anxiety and fear of recurrence with greater steadiness
reconnect with relationships that may have changed during treatment
discover renewed meaning, purpose, and joy while acknowledging that life has changed
move forward with greater clarity while making space for both gratitude and grief
My work includes:
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Learning to meet difficult experiences with greater awareness, compassion, and steadiness.
Narrative Therapy
Helping you reclaim authorship of your story so illness or caregiving becomes part of your life, instead of the whole story.
Values-Centered Therapy (ACT)
Exploring what continues to give your life purpose, connection, and direction, especially during uncertainty.
Somatic Therapy
Listening to how stress, grief, fear, and hope live within your body, and gently creating space for comfort.
My Philosophy
Healing can happen every day.
Despite treatments. Regardless of outcomes.
In subtle moments that can radically repair wounds of a lifetime.
Perspective
Change happens when we can notice our experiences rather than fight them.
Perspective lets us view life through a more helpful lens.
Compassion
Suffering diminishes when we recognize pain is part of the human condition.
Compassion holds space no matter the weight of suffering.
Harmony
Connection is restored when we recognize the cycles of life within us and around us.
Harmony is the essence of belonging.
The evidence-based therapeutic tools I use – namely ACT, Mindfulness-Based Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Somatic Therapy – integrate together to build skills particularly suited for shifting perspective, building compassion, and restoring harmony.