Four women, each diagnosed with breast cancer, were dismayed to learn that the conventional vocabulary for healing is a language characterized by a terminology of warfare and survivorship, and one which is frought with winners and losers. Speak the Language of Healing is the product of their collective endeavor to develop a new framework for the emotional stages of illness and a new means for its discusson. Their experiences reflect their four different spiritual backgrounds Christian, Jewish, Sufi, and Twelve Step, with each rewriting the combative language of illness with words emphasizing relationship, integration, and spirit. The authors were breast cancer patients, but their search for meaning, purpose, and emotional balance is universal to anyone facing a life-threatening disease.