top of page
Katherine Davis, Author
kd@katherinedavisauthor.com

Search


Cancer Recovery: Yes in a World Sometimes Full of Violent No’s
Perhaps I shouldn’t have had the massage. It had been almost two years since a professional had touched me in a compassionate, and not a clinical, way. My chemotherapy for breast cancer had finished, and I was trying to reconnect with my body and find some physical relief. My cancer recovery had begun. But massage releases both the angels and the demons within.
davikath8
Apr 112 min read
19 views


Healthcare: People Are the Point, Not Disease
We are still mired in disease-centred care. As to being seen as a whole human in the healthcare system, you are out of luck.
davikath8
Mar 194 min read
9 views


The Little Engine that Wouldn’t: Never Try to Cheer up a Cancer Patient
Rule #1 and #1000: Never try to cheer up a cancer patient. Is it really so hard? Letting others be themselves?
davikath8
Mar 12 min read
9 views


Healing after Gaslighting: On Stepping out of my Abusers’ Shoes
Having long been gaslighted by authority figures, I tend to gaslight myself, but I am done. Believing myself is healing, is health.
davikath8
Feb 131 min read
23 views


PTSD and Me: Wounds into Wings, into Weapons
I didn’t have a PTSD episode while awaiting my colonoscopy to annoy my gastroenterologist, but annoyed he was. He is a busy, important...
davikath8
Jan 272 min read
34 views


Empathy and Defense: Cancer Survivor Superpowers
A survivor of cancer and childhood abuse explains how empathy and defense have become her superpowers, sprung from scarcity.
davikath8
Dec 17, 20243 min read
20 views


What Does Trauma Look Like? Appearances Can Be Attractive Lies
What does trauma look like? Appearances can be deceiving, as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are common and can happen to anyone.
davikath8
Dec 3, 20242 min read
27 views


Hello Darkness, My Old Friend: A Cancer Survivor's PTSD
A survivor of multiple cancers reflects on her relationship with panic, how PTSD has shaped her life and her character.
davikath8
Oct 31, 20242 min read
21 views


Medicine as Transaction: Why I Insist on Being Human
Medicine as transaction. I suppose I am not suited for it. But I ask myself, what are these startling realities calling me to do?
davikath8
Oct 9, 20243 min read
30 views


Alice Munro and the Loneliness of the Abandoned Child
Recent revelations about author Alice Munro cause this writer to reflect on her own childhood
davikath8
Aug 3, 20242 min read
70 views
0 comments


No Time for Terror: Observations from Provincial Cancer Land
A Canadian cancer patient shares observations from the front lines of an overtaxed and underfunded system
davikath8
Jun 3, 20242 min read
35 views


Having Cancer Again: The Real Work of Love
Looking back, it seems obvious that what happened to me that summer was traumatic. I was a fifteen-year-old receiving chemo for Hodgkin’s...
davikath8
Feb 6, 20242 min read
47 views
0 comments


Upon the Reappearance of Cancer's Goblins
Before, during, and after my bone marrow transplant as a teenager, the experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center did not disguise...
davikath8
Sep 18, 20232 min read
27 views
0 comments


Growing Out of Trauma and Into Health
Because my parents punished me every time I asserted myself, my nervous system continues to recoil every time I do so, even at the age of...
davikath8
Jan 10, 20232 min read
83 views
0 comments


On The Myth of Normal
While Gabor Mate in his new book, The Myth of Normal (https://drgabormate.com/), explicitly forgives parents who inflict their trauma on...
davikath8
Oct 13, 20222 min read
85 views
1 comment


Closing the Book on Gaslighting: On Learning My Psychiatrist of 20 Years Lost His Medical Licence
I shall close the long and gruesome history of gaslighting in my life with the following fact: my psychiatrist of almost 20 years lost...
davikath8
Jun 15, 20222 min read
57 views
0 comments


On Escaping the Land of Delusion
I have broken the family contract. My mother enforced it: we (mother and three daughters) were never to acknowledge or object to my...
davikath8
May 12, 20221 min read
56 views
0 comments


Continuing the Dance
I keep waiting to be tried for my crimes against humanity. What crimes, you might ask? (I ask myself as well, in constant evaluation of...
davikath8
Feb 3, 20221 min read
39 views
0 comments


The Power of Unlikely Animals
If you have two hours available for some serious viewing, I highly recommend Jane Campion’s new masterpiece, “Power of the Dog.” While it...
davikath8
Dec 10, 20211 min read
22 views
0 comments


Death Be Not Proud
Even before I confronted death at age 15, I had tastes, desires, and a temperament that did not fit. I danced, and sang, and immersed...
davikath8
Nov 19, 20212 min read
25 views
0 comments
bottom of page