Leslie Jacobson, MFT
Hello, my name is Leslie. Forty seven years ago, my mother, a survivor, was diagnosed with breast cancer. For the rest of my childhood, I wondered if my mother would live. I watched her suffer in isolation as she struggled emotionally with the ravages of the Halsted Radical Mastectomy.
I have been a psychotherapist for twenty-five years but my clinical practice has always been paralleled by my work in breast cancer advocacy, treatment, and psycho-social support.
After years of experience in working with breast cancer issues, I found that there are groups of women who are still struggling after diagnosis and who are not being completely served. Breast cancer coaching offers vital support to these under-served women.
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These groups of under-served women include women who are hesitant about initiating emotional support, women who feel too ill from treatment to be available for ongoing support or therapy, and women who are too busy with treatment and career demands to take the time to travel to another appointment.
As a natural extension of my private practice and expertise, I have created "Your Breast Cancer Coach," to reach out to women whose lives are impacted by breast cancer and to give them crucial emotional support. As "Your Breast Cancer Coach," I can help you to cope with the effects of breast cancer on your life.
My first 15 years in private practice were spent in Irvine, California. During that time, I ran breast cancer support groups for women who were newly diagnosed at one of the finest breast centers in the U.S., Long Beach Memorial Breast Center. Featured on NBC's "20-20" and in numerous magazines, the center's caring and supportive programs gave me extensive experience in working with women coping with breast cancer issues.
It was then that I realized my deep commitment to these women, and this field has continued to be the focus and interest of my life.
In 1994, my husband and I decided to move to the Pacific Northwest. He is a dedicated breast cancer specialist and surgeon, and I am currently the psycho-social Director at our breast center in Washington State.
Convinced of the value of education and breast health awareness, I am a frequent lecturer on the psycho-social impact of breast cancer at public and professional breast cancer conferences. Some of the professional conferences include Mammography Education Courses (Lazlo Tabar MD), the Interdisciplinary Symposium on Breast Cancer at Houston Northwest Medical Center, and the National Consortium of Breast Centers.
As a result of my work as a psycho-social consultant in an area of new treatment for women with smaller tumors and benign breast disease, I was on a panel of experts at a public lecture at Summit Cancer Care Center in Oakland, California with Dr. Susan Love, and breast surgeon Dr. Lisa Bailey.
This innovative treatment introduced by the bio-technology company, Sanarus, Inc., is an "ablative" (local) process which avoids traditional surgery using a freezing technique. My work with Sanarus included working with focus groups to better understand the needs of women with benign breast disease.
I experienced one of my greatest career challenges in the Ukraine ten years after the Chernobyl nuclear accident where there was an alarming increase in breast cancer. The traditional lack of social support for Ukrainian women was most clearly evidenced by the fact that they were never told directly by their doctor that they had breast cancer!
As the mental health consultant to a team of physicians from U.S. AID Outreach, I created a dialogue with the Ukrainian health professionals (physicians and medical administrators), and helped to establish support groups.
After three years and multiple attempts to change their medical as well as psycho-social treatment, the one change that has lasted is the support groups! As a result, breast cancer support groups are today an integral part of intervention for Ukrainian women.
Continuing my focus on breast cancer awareness, I produce and curate a regional art exhibition entitled "Reaching for the Light." This annual art show includes women and men impacted in any way by breast cancer, and includes participants from the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.
I was also the co-host with my husband of the weekly radio show "Your Breast Health " in Monterey, California. We looked at both medical and psycho-social issues and answered "on-the-air" telephone calls from the listening audience.
In my efforts to respond to the need for increased awareness and for personal support, I designed The Breast Milagro, a breast cancer survivor and breast cancer awareness symbol. The Breast Milagro is a symbol of faith that requests breast health, and a symbol of gratitude that gives thanks for breast cancer survivorship. The Breast Milagro is tasteful and elegant jewelry that can be worn privately, or as a public statement of breast health awareness.
The Breast Milagro has been donated to various breast cancer support groups including The Breast Cancer Fund, thebreastcancersite.com, and the Susan Komen Foundation among others. (www.thebreastmilagro.com).