Faith, Hope, and Healing: Spiritual Care and Cancer Patient Support

When Alba Violeta Espitia began facing the physical and emotional weight of cancer treatment, tears came easily and often. Days blurred together in exhaustion and uncertainty, each one harder than the last. Yet amid the pain and fear, she found un aliento — a quiet source of strength and encouragement that helped her keep going.

What began as brief conversations and prayers soon became a lifeline, offering comfort, understanding and hope when she needed them most.

Spiritual care, she says, has become a meaningful part of her journey toward emotional well-being. Espitia feels especially thankful for meeting and establishing a close relationship with Chaplain Silena Villanueva, and for the moments that have allowed her to open up, feel heard, and release emotions she usually keeps to herself.

“Sometimes one is seeking something that you don’t really know you need,” Espitia says. “That’s what I found in Silena — she has given me so much support. We speak, we pray, we laugh.”

Diagnosed with renal cancer in 2017, doctors found in 2020 that it had metastasized to both lungs and her sternum. Since then, Espitia has received three sessions of radiation therapy and multiple chemotherapy cycles. She has been part of a medical study since May 2024, testing a medication called Cadastifan.

“It’s been a real encouragement to be part of this study,” Espitia says. “Knowing that my participation might help this medication get approved gives me hope.”

Spiritual care can help patients through difficult times.

Espitia first learned about spiritual care at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth – University of Miami Health System, from a woman she met in the center’s lobby on a day she was especially distraught. The woman, also a patient, told her about assistance programs the hospital offers, introduced her to social workers who could help arrange transportation to medical appointments — and suggested Espitia also meet with a spiritual advisor.

“It was a very difficult time,” says Espitia, who is from Venezuela and has been in the United States for nearly four years. “I felt something was missing; sometimes I had ugly thoughts.”

In these conversations and prayers, she found moments of calm in the middle of the whirlwind of doctors’ visits, tests, scans and treatments and their related side effects — helping her pause, breathe and find some peace amid it all.

Survivorship plans can coordinate several activities, including spiritual care.

Villanueva urged Espitia to explore activities offered through Sylvester’s Survivorship and Supportive Care Institute — including yoga, acupuncture, art, music and massage therapy. She registered for several and began attending exercise classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The excitement of going to exercise, Espitia recalled, helped her get out of bed.

Her relationship with Villanueva has become one of the most meaningful parts of her journey. What began as brief visits during treatment evolved into deep conversations about faith, hope and healing. Villanueva has been by her side as Espitia deals with one of her most difficult challenges: she hasn’t seen her only son — who now lives in Spain — for four years, nor has she seen her grandson, who remains in Venezuela.

“She’s more than a chaplain — she’s a friend,” Espitia says. “She helped me see that I am not alone.”

As Espitia continues her treatment, she carries the lessons of her sessions with Villanueva — the peace of prayer, the healing power of movement and the comfort of being heard — which have become a source of strength and peace.

At Sylvester, spiritual care plays a critical role in supporting patients through the emotional complexity and unique challenges of cancer care, helping them find strength amid fear and uncertainty. Each encounter is guided by the patient, their individual needs and experiences. Chaplains also help patients identify other sources of strength that can sustain them throughout diagnosis and treatment.

Faith offers community for patients.

“Spiritual care provided by chaplains trained to work with cancer patients and survivors is an essential part of whole-person cancer care,” says Frank J. Penedo, Ph.D., director of the Sylvester Cancer Survivorship and Supportive Care Institute and associate director for population sciences at Sylvester. “It helps patients navigate the complex emotional and existential challenges of their diagnosis, and it’s a vital complement to medical treatment. Chaplaincy services are fully integrated into our survivorship and supportive care programs thus facilitating care coordination and delivery of essential spiritual and supportive care.”

Faith, for Espitia, also means community. Through her connection with Villanueva, she has found new ways to reach others who are facing their battle with cancer and the challenges it brings. She has taken others to spiritual care for consultations, and each person has described it as a beautiful experience — a place where they can open up, pray and feel safe.

“It’s not like seeing a psychiatrist,” she says.

Over time, Espitia has also connected with people near and far, offering encouragement and faith to others going through cancer treatment. Some have become long-distance friends, even without meeting in person. She noted that she often reminds them to trust their own bodies, to ignore what others may comment and to give thanks to God.

After seven years in treatment, Espitia sees her journey not as an illness but as a source of learning — a reminder that “God knows how long and why I’m living this experience.”

Written by Cynthia Corzo.

Tags: Cancer emotional support services, Chaplain Silena Villanueva, Faith-based cancer support, Integrative oncology services, Supportive cancer care Miami