A collaborative model of integrative care: Synergy between Anthroposophic music therapy, acupuncture, and spiritual care in two patients with breast cancer.

Complementary/integrative medicine (CIM) has been shown to play an important role in supportive cancer care, relieving symptoms and improving quality of life among oncology patients. Communication between CIM practitioners and oncology healthcare professionals has been researched in depth, while little attention has been paid to the interaction between CIM practitioners from different disciplines who work together in the integrative oncology setting. The present paper explores the interaction between an Anthroposophic music therapist and a spiritual care provider who co-treated two female patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. The joint CIM treatments took place in an Integrative Oncology service in northern Israel, and the collaboration between the two practitioners resulted in a synergistic therapeutic process, promoting the patients' wellbeing and facilitating spiritual growth. There is a need to further explore therapeutic interactions between CIM therapists from different disciplines, who often work together in the integrative oncology setting. Collaboration between different CIM disciplines can lead to a synergy which goes beyond an additive effect of the individual therapies.