The spirituality of pain and suffering

Through ten years, I have experienced the immense privilege and profound challenge of offering Counselling and Therapeutic Accompaniment within cancer care. These years have faced me with both the beauty and the agony of existence, challenging me to find 'an integrity that can be faithful to both without compromising truth' (Mayne 2001, p.141). Those with whom I walk teach me the critical importance of acknowledging a pain embodied. As such, embodiment finds its voice, whether subtle or shouting. In accompaniment, I believe I witness an echo of the spirit; a primitive cry maybe. When I reflect pain herein, I envisage an encompassing and essentially spiritual experience. I strongly believe that, as listeners, we might become more aware of the primitive cries of those we accompany, through attuning ourselves more carefully to their presence with us; attaining a fuller sense of the holistic within our practice.