This presentation is based on over 25 years experience working in Psycho-Oncology. It takes a commom problem, Living with Uncertainty and provides  some understanding of the issues from psychological perspective and some solutions for patients and clinicians.

Human beings possess incredible strength and resilience in the most difficult situations. If a threat, change or challenge is identified they can engage in 'the fight' using all their 'fight and flight' related energy in a positive way.

We are built to manage a problem or a battle, however we are no so well equipped to manage uncertainty, mixed messages, suggestions or unclear probabilities. Uncertainty is a very hard place to live, we find this information very difficult to process. One analogy might be that, it leaves us with a half open file on the desk top of our mind, which will not close.

Cognitive Dissonance is a psychological process in which we have a mismatch between our thoughts and emotions, or information we are being asked to consider and our emotions. We all know how this feels, consider our parent informing us with a smile 'We are going to see the lovely dentist today'. As we consider this scenario we undersatand that complex mix of the message, our thoughts and our emotional responses.

No one can deny that there have been great advances in the treatment of many cancers. However as in all medical treatments there are few certainties and many possible side effects. The need for Informed Consent also requires that patients are given a wide range of information which in many cases they are unable understand fully.This is a rich ground for Cognitive Dissonance.

This presentation will briefly discuss ways to assist patients using psychological approaches including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Interpersonal Psychotherapy.