Ann’s Place Offers Cancer Support, Counseling, And Hope

By Kendra Bobowick

Options. Regaining a sense of hope. Overcoming fear.

Ann’s Place, Home of I Can, a center for cancer support services based in Danbury, can help.

“We are here to provide a safe place for people to come,” said Ann’s Place Clinical Director Suzanne Murdoch, a licensed clinical social worker. “It’s a safe place for them to bring their feelings, positive and negative.” Whether in groups or individually, counseling provide a place for cancer survivors to be with others in similar situations, she said. Ann’s Place Board of Directors member and cancer survivor Joy Previdi admitted, “Definitely people take different paths. It’s an elite club that no one wants to be in, but it’s a close-knit group.”

Support groups for spouses, survivors of recurring and chronic cancer, breast cancer survivors, family and friends of survivors, men’s, women’s, and teens’ groups and more are among the support offered at Ann’s. Counseling, art therapy, relaxation/guided imagery, and referral services are also found at Ann’s, which is on the fourth floor of the P Building of the corporate park at 39 Old Ridgebury Road.

The center helps people see options obscured by a cancer diagnosis.

“We try to help people regain a sense of hope and think of strategies to take back or find control,” said Ms Murdoch. “Cancer takes away a sense of control.”

Remembering her own trials, Newtown resident and cancer survivor Amy Dent said: “I started counseling. I stopped counseling.” With hindsight, she said, “I realized how important it was to have someone to talk to.” Expressing thoughts similar to Ms Murdoch’s, she said, “It helps you put in perspective how you’re dealing with what you’re living with. What Ann’s does you can’t find anywhere else.”

Beyond the fear and trap of emotions is a bigger picture.

“Ann’s helps people with options, determining what in life is important and what people want to do about it,” explained Ms Murdoch, who has heard incredible stories. “People come in with fear, anger, all kinds of difficult feelings, but with other people going through similar things, they come to a sense of peace.” Through counseling and support, a cancer survivor can get out from under emotions. “There is no longer a sense of helplessness,” she said.

Unfortunately, a person may enter the center with little hope.

“First, we allow people to explore their feelings and not run away from them,” Ms Murdoch said. “People often try to comfort a person, but that doesn’t give them the opportunity to be where they are. When you’re not trying to push away feelings, they’re more manageable.”

She stressed perspective.

“When you can look at fears you have a sense of control. You can look at the meaning of what’s happening,” said the clinical social worker.

Frustration and disbelief are also hurdles.

“A lot of times people think that illness shouldn’t happen and a lot of people assume that if you live right, eat right, it won’t happen,” she added. “But it happens. People need to recognize that it’s nothing they did, it’s life, so they need to figure out how to live the best life they can each day.”

Beginning in 1987, people fighting cancer in the greater Danbury area could get financial assistance for cancer-related expenses locally through a fund established by the Ann Olsen Endowment, begun by Ronald Olsen as a memorial tribute to his wife Ann, who died of cancer.

Dr Robert Cooper, a central figure in Connecticut oncology research and practice, introduced Mary Burke and Patricia Bragdon, the co-founders of I Can, to Ronald Olsen in 1991 and a professional relationship began.

The year 1995 saw a joint efforts to help cancer patients. By 2000 the effort to establish Ann’s Place had begun. Today, Ann’s Place, the Home of I Can Cancer Support Services is an agency with a blended name that pays tribute to the late Ann Olsen and to the vision of the I Can founders. It has become the primary contact for area cancer patients and their families.

All of Ann’s Place services are free. The center relies entirely on fundraising and contributions.

Full details about Ann’s Place, the Home of I Can, its offerings and ways that the public can help support the organization are available online at AnnsPlace.org.