Claire Edmonds
Claire Edmonds' skill and compassion have been a great gift to Wellspring since 1995 when she joined as a Program Leader. Having worked at Princess Margaret Hospital for 24 years and completed her PhD in health psychology; Claire has extensive experience working with cancer patients and their families. At Wellspring, Claire has led the Relaxation and Visualization program and has also helped with the program design for Return To Work, From Healthcare to Selfcare, and Care for the Professional Caregiver. She also helps to train other program leaders and peer support and co-facilitator volunteers.
Currently Claire is leading The Healing Journey. For Claire, the most rewarding part of working with this group is watching the participants grow from a place of fear about their cancer diagnosis to a place of learning and confidence. They learn to provide care and support for themselves and regain focus to ask questions about their diagnosis. As many participants later return as volunteers, Claire believes they become beacons to other cancer patients to show what is possible and how far one can come from the initial feelings of shock and confusion.
Claire feels privileged to be working with the members, volunteers and staff at Wellspring. She has great confidence in the standard of care that is available and believes that the organization demonstrates an outstanding willingness to be innovative while continually keeping the members as the primary focus. Claire describes her experiences over the years at Wellspring as being “humbling and remarkable”.