Radical Remission:
Dr. Kelly Turner's Factors in Healing Against All Odds

There is a moment when a woman receives a diagnosis and, in the same breath, a feeling that everything is outside her control. Her body is doing something that cannot be stopped, the doctors are speaking a foreign language, and the word "statistics" hangs in the air.

And then comes the quiet question, the one that is hard to say out loud: can I do anything? Do I even have a part in this story?

Dr. Kelly Turner, a researcher from Berkeley in the United States, asked exactly that question, and went looking for answers among people who had healed against all odds.

What Kelly Turner researched

Turner examined hundreds of cases of "Radical Remission" - people who recovered from cancer when medicine did not expect it. Sometimes after conventional treatment had run its course, and sometimes alongside it.

She was not looking for one great miracle. She was looking for patterns, and what she found was surprising: again and again, in different people across different cultures, the same factors recurred.

It is important to say this clearly, because it is the heart of the matter: these are factors observed as shared among those who recovered - not a shopping list that guarantees healing. Turner herself stresses this again and again.

The nine factors

Here are the factors Turner identified as recurring:

• Changing your diet - moving toward whole, natural, more nourishing food
• Taking control of your health - being an active partner in the process, not a passenger
• Following your intuition - giving space to the inner voice that knows what is right for you
• Using herbs and supplements - supporting the body, always in consultation with professionals
• Releasing suppressed emotions - giving space to the anger, the grief and the fear stored inside
• Increasing positive emotions - joy, gratitude, moments of light within the day
• Strengthening social support - being surrounded by people who hold you
• Deepening your spiritual connection - connecting to something greater than you, in the way that is true for you
• Having strong reasons for living - knowing what you get up in the morning for

Look at that list again. Seven of the nine factors are not medical at all - they are emotional, mental and spiritual. That is exactly what moves me so deeply about them.

What connects these factors

If you look closely, most of the factors share one thing: they give a person back a sense of agency. The feeling that I am not just a body something is happening to, but a whole person who can choose, listen and take part.

This absolutely does not mean the illness is "your fault". In fact, the word "blame" is worth removing from the vocabulary entirely. We are looking for understanding and gentleness, and for connection to the emotions and to the parts of ourselves that were never given room.

In recent years a structured program based on this approach has been studied, and it was found to contribute to participants' quality of life and sense of wellbeing. That is not a promise of recovery - it is support along the way.

Reading recommendation: the book behind the research

Dr. Turner summarised this research in her book Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds, published in Hebrew as "המסע להחלמה: תשעת המפתחות להחלמה מסרטן" (Focus Publishing). I recommend it with my whole heart.

The book applies a simple and powerful principle: learn from those who won.

Dr. Kelly Turner interviewed many dozens of people who had cancer and who, against all odds and in very difficult situations - tumours that had become resistant to every treatment, states of multiple metastases and more - overcame the disease.

In the medical literature, cases like these are described as "spontaneous remission".

Dr. Turner understood that there was nothing spontaneous about it. It was clear to her that these people had done something other patients had not. That is exactly what she set out to examine, and the book summarises her research on the subject.

The book offers a great many insights, and it is a kind of guide for anyone setting out on their own healing journey. Because those who won did not sit on the fence. They took actions that strengthened their healing powers and allowed the body to do what it knows how to do.

And the truth is that this book is suitable and recommended not only for people facing cancer. The principles it presents hold for anyone facing a medical challenge of any kind.

If you are facing a medical challenge, this book is essential reading for you.

My approach, and how it connects to our work

As a former breast cancer researcher and as a practitioner, I live exactly on that bridge: between scientific knowledge and the body, the mind, consciousness and spirit.

Turner's factors speak a language I know intimately. In my work we touch the suppressed emotions, strengthen your connection to yourself, look for your reason to live, and build a supportive circle around you. Not instead of medicine - alongside it.

A framework, not a substitute

I want to be completely clear: everything written here is a complementary framework. It does not replace diagnosis, monitoring or medical treatment, and it is not a substitute for professional psychological support when that is needed.

Dr. Turner herself stresses this: these factors are meant to go hand in hand with conventional medicine, not in its place. Continue with all the instructions, tests and treatments from your medical team, and seek advice for any question or new symptom.

What I am offering is an additional space - for the heart, the emotions and the mind - that can walk alongside the medical road and support you within it.

If this article stirred something in you, perhaps this is the time to give yourself space to heal. In the "Healing from Breast Cancer" group program and in the personal process at the clinic we walk exactly this road, together. You do not have to do it alone.

With love, Tali