Space, Place, and Psychosocial Well-Being: Women's Experience of Breast Cancer at an Environmental Retreat

Abstract

Psychosocial oncology research has highlighted the complex experience of living with cancer, encompassing personal and emotional, as well as family, social and community experiences. This article seeks to extend the concept of “psychosocial” to include therapeutic landscapes, and to understand in what ways space and place shape the experience of living with cancer. These ideas are explored with reference to a qualitative study that explored women's experience of breast cancer at an environmental retreat in Victoria, Australia.