One of the driving passions behind Sharon's work in the cancer community has been to make it possible for many more cancer patients and survivors to experience the healing benefits of expressive writing. Wellspring Writers Associates are group leaders and helping professionals who have studied with and been mentored by Sharon in the foundations of therapeutic writing and key approaches in facilitating expressive writing groups for cancer patients.
Sara Fainstein, Ph.D.
Sara Fainstein, Ph.D., is a polio survivor and a two-time breast cancer survivor. Mexican-born, Sara is fully bilingual and bicultural. For the past two years, she has worked with and been mentored by Sharon and will be leading expressive writing workshops for Spanish speaking cancer patients and survivors in the San Diego area. Sara’s education and background are in Clinical Psychology and Public Health. In addition to her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, she has a master's degree in Public Health and was a post-doctoral fellow at The Wellness Community-San Diego and part of the team who started the first comprehensive Spanish-speaking program for cancer patients and their loved ones.Sara was also instrumental in the start-up of the Caring Community-Living with Cancer, a program of Jewish Family Service (JFS) San Diego. When JFS shifted its focus, she transitioned that group to the San Diego Cancer Navigator, now under the name of Cancer Support and Navigation Network. She continues to facilitate weekly support groups for cancer patients and their loved ones, as well as relaxation & visualization workshops and a cancer educational series.
Sara is very active and involved in other programs and advocacy groups, facilitating Spanish breast cancer support groups for San Ysidro Health Center’s PODER program, as well as a monthly group for Spanish-speaking individuals with various cancer diagnoses, with her colleague Mercedes Garcia-Mohr, oncology social worker at the Rebecca & John Moores UCSD Cancer Center. In addition to her other cancer advocacy and volunteer activities, Sara is an active member of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Coalition and sits on the steering committee of Cancer Survivorship-San Diego.
Karen Jandorf now leads the writing program for women with breast cancer (The Scribbling Women of CBHP) at the Breast Cancer Connections (formerly Community Breast Health Project) in Palo Alto, CA, a group founded by Sharon Bray in 2001. Karen has studied with Sharon since 2003 and is also trained in the Amherst Writers and Artists writing group method.
After her breast cancer diagnosis in 2003, she became a member of "The Scribbling Women of CBHP," Bray's pioneering writing program at CBHP. Her poetry has appeared in Sharon Bray's A Healing Journey: Writing Through Breast Cancer (2004), CURE Magazine,The Survivor's Review, and in Bray's When Words Heal: Writing Through Cancer (North Atlantic Books, 2006).
In addition to her professional experience, Karen is a certified Professional Coach (PCC) and Master Health Practitioner in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP). She is a first level Yoga Instructor and a TaKeTiNa Rhythm teacher. (Read Karen's feature article in the current issue of Survivor's Review.)
