Cancer survivors heal emotionally, spiritually at Harmony Hill

09:02 AM PDT on Thursday, October 13, 2005

By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

HOOD CANAL, Wash. - For cancer patients, the first focus is on treatment. But one local nurse practitioner thought there needed to be something more. Her vision: a free cancer retreat center on Hood Canal where patients could come to heal emotionally and spiritually.

More than ten years after the first retreat, Harmony Hill continues to expand.

“I heard about the center from a dear friend whose life was transformed,” one person writes to the center. “Before she went there, she was bitter, frightened and angry about her diagnosis. But after she returned, she was the most intensely alive person I have ever known.”

It's a story Harmony Hill founder Gretchen Schodde hears often. There's just something about the place.

“Whoever wants start may take the stick and speak from the heart,” said Schodde.

For many cancer patients, this is the first time they can speak freely and not hold back.

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Besides tasty homegrown produce, the three-day retreats feature art therapy and stress management classes.

“I had really been strugging with allowing myself to feel any kind of joy or any kind of happy moments because I felt if I did that I wasn't addressing the fear,” said Emily Dade, breast cancer patient.

Dade was only 25 with two small children when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Now the cancer has come back and spread, but this time she feels better able to cope.

“Being in this space, being in the energy that is here filled my tank… two weeks later when I got that metastic diagnosis I think I was stronger in handling that because I had just been here. So I'm very glad to be back again today,” said Dade.

Karen James admits to being a skeptic at first.

“I was rather resistant in coming to the Hill,” said James. “They told me it was vegetarian based. I said are you kidding?”

Her opinion soon changed.

“When we arrived, the warmth of the kitchen was so graceful and it hits you,” said James. “You just want to say I'm home.”

Besides tasty homegrown produce and recipes to take home, the three-day retreats also feature art therapy and classes in stress management.

Oncologist Frank Senecal, who serves on the board, calls it a place to heal.

“A patient who is more relaxed, perhaps a bit less anxiety, more comfortable and hopeful is going to be a patient I think who will to do better,” said Senecal.

Rooms are cheerful. Everything is green-built, nothing toxic for immune systems that are already compromised. Best of all, there's no charge for patients or their caregivers.

“Had Harmony Hill not been free for me to come, I would not have been able to do it,” said Sally Suttle, breast cancer patient.

For these cancer patients, the focus is on life and living it well.

“It has just really, really helped me to know me a lot better and find myself,” said Cheryl Davis, lymphoma patient.

Harmony Hill supports itself with grants, donations and private group rentals.

For more information on how to sign up for a retreat or for tickets to their upcoming benefit concert in Seattle, go to www.harmonyhill.org or call 360-898-2363.