What if the goal isn't to get rid of fear, but to turn down its volume?

In this episode of Healthier Than Ever, Toni sits down with Dr. Marc Schoen, a clinical psychologist, author, and resilience expert who has been studying hypnosis since he found a book on his mother's shelf at age 13. He also happens to be her neighbor, and his work has helped her tremendously over the past few years, including in preparing for two surgeries.

Together they get specific about what hypnosis can and can't do during cancer treatment: reconditioning an overactive fear response, easing pain and nausea, getting back to sleep after a 3 a.m. wake-up, and, in some cases, reawakening taste buds after radiation. Marc explains why the problem isn't fear itself but chronic fear, why resilience is "the ability to successfully manage being uncomfortable," and why "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" isn't true.

This is not a conversation about curing cancer. It's about the symptoms and the fear that travel with it, and about finding ways through them.

This episode was recorded in December 2025. The surgery Toni mentions as upcoming took place in July, 2026. She also references an earlier surgery which took place in July, 2024. 

In This Episode

• The two biggest myths about hypnosis, and why they don't hold up
• How Marc first tested hypnosis on surgical patients in the 1970s, and what later research confirmed
• The recording Toni listened to in pre-op, and the two-week protocol Marc recommends before any surgery
• Why you discover new things in the same recording months later
• Scan anxiety: a mental script and a breathing reset for the waiting period
• Hypnosis for pain, nausea, sleep, nightmares, and the "noise in the brain"
• Reawakening taste after radiation, and why Marc jokes about the weight gain
• Where hypnosis falls short (brain fog), and what Marc has seen help instead
• "What if I can't be hypnotized?"
• Discomfort versus danger: Marc's definition of resilience
• What to expect from a first session, and the wildflower field metaphor

About Dr. Marc Schoen

Dr. Marc Schoen is a clinical psychologist, retired professor, author, and expert in resilience psychology and mind-body medicine.

He is the author of Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You and When Relaxation Is Hazardous to Your Health.

Connect With Dr. Marc Schoen

Website
https://www.marcschoen.com/

The Schoen Breath Technique
Marc offers his Breath Technique audio as a free download here:

https://www.marcschoen.com/products

This page also includes additional audio files available for purchase, including the Surgery Hypnosis recording discussed in the episode and a Healing Hypnosis recording.

Books

Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Survival-Instinct-Killing-You/dp/0142180742

When Relaxation Is Hazardous to Your Health
https://www.amazon.com/When-Relaxation-Hazardous-Your-Health/dp/0971117608

Resources from Toni

The wellness resources I share through Healthier Than Ever are intentionally simple and conservative. They are not cancer-treatment recommendations.

Calm & Clarity Plan
Gentle, foundational options for stress and nervous-system support.
20% off - htever.com/calm

Restorative Sleep Plan
A collection of sleep-supportive supplements and calming nutrients.
20% off - htever.com/sleep

Even gentle supplements can interact with medications or cancer treatments, so always review anything new with your medical team.

If you choose to purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. That support helps offset some of the costs of producing Healthier Than Ever.

Cancer vaccines have been making headlines - and during a recent oncology appointment at City of Hope, I unexpectedly got the chance to spend about 20 minutes talking with Dr. Turja Chakrabarti, a physician and cancer-vaccine researcher.

I had asked my oncologist, Dr. Ravi Salgia, about the encouraging melanoma research combining a personalized cancer vaccine with Keytruda - the same immunotherapy drug I’m currently taking for Stage 4 lung cancer. By complete coincidence, Dr. Chakrabarti happened to be in the room, and he stayed afterward to answer my questions.

I’m a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, not a cancer-vaccine researcher or medical oncologist, so I was very much the student in this conversation. But what I learned fascinated me.

In this mini episode, I share my very simple understanding of how researchers may be able to analyze a person’s own tumor, identify unique targets called neoantigens, and create a personalized vaccine designed to teach the immune system what to recognize and attack.

I also talk about why these vaccines are being studied in two very different situations: potentially helping prevent microscopic cancer cells from growing into another tumor, and potentially treating active cancer when other therapies may no longer be working.

For me, nothing about my treatment has changed. I’m currently doing well on Keytruda, and I haven’t signed up for a vaccine or clinical trial. Dr. Chakrabarti simply offered to explore what options or studies might potentially be relevant for me now or farther down the road.

That’s where this stands: curiosity, exploration, and a lot of excitement about where the science may be headed.

If you’re living with cancer and this research interests you, talk with your own oncology team or ask whether researchers at your cancer center are working on personalized cancer vaccines, neoantigens, or related immunotherapies.

Disclaimer: I’m sharing my personal experience and what I learned as a patient. This episode is not medical advice. Cancer-vaccine research is still evolving, and these approaches are not established or appropriate for every cancer or every patient.

Sending lots of love and healing energy,
Toni

When Karla Mans Giroux learned that her breast cancer had returned and spread to her bones eleven years after her original diagnosis, her mind went immediately to the worst-case scenario. Then her oncologist told her something she wasn't expecting: “This is a chronic disease we can manage.”

Karla decided she was going to “manage the hell out of” her diagnosis.

That decision eventually led her to cancer coaching, integrative approaches to health, and the work of Dr. Kelly Turner and the Radical Remission Project - research exploring common factors among people who experienced unexpected recoveries from cancer.

As two people living with Stage 4 cancer, Karla and I talk about what it means to participate actively in your own healing without pretending there is one magic diet, mindset, supplement, or spiritual practice that determines the outcome.

We explore food without perfectionism, movement that doesn't require running marathons, spirituality outside of religion, intuition, scan anxiety, difficult emotions, hope, survival statistics, and why a cancer diagnosis can make every decision feel like an emergency.

Most of all, this is a conversation about living with serious illness while still making room for possibility.

In This Episode

• When Stage 4 feels like a death sentence
• How cancer coaching changed Karla's approach to healing
• The Radical Remission healing factors
• Spirituality for people who aren't religious
• Exercise, movement, and finding a realistic way to stay consistent
• Why cancer patients can make themselves miserable trying to eat perfectly
• Hope, difficult emotions, and the problem with forced positivity
• Scan anxiety, patient portals, AI, and survival statistics
• Why newly diagnosed patients may benefit from slowing down when medically appropriate

About Karla

Karla Mans Giroux is a Stage 4 breast cancer survivor, Managing Director of the Radical Remission Project, Radical Remission coach, co-host of Stories That Heal, and co-founder of Health Navigators, a virtual cancer wellness community.

Connect With Karla

Health Navigators
Cancer coaching and wellness support with Karla Mans Giroux
https://healthnavs.com

Radical Remission Project
Learn more about the Radical Remission research, books, workshops, coaching, and community.
https://radicalremission.com

Stories That Heal
Karla co-hosts Stories That Heal, a Radical Remission podcast featuring conversations about healing, resilience, and unexpected outcomes. Find it through the Radical Remission Project or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Resources from Toni

The wellness resources I share through Healthier Than Ever are intentionally simple and conservative. They are not cancer-treatment recommendations. I focus on gentle, foundational options for general areas of well-being such as stress, sleep, nutrition, and energy.

Even gentle supplements can interact with medications or cancer treatments, so always review anything new with your medical team. For concerns requiring more targeted or individualized support, I recommend working with an integrative medicine professional who has specific experience caring for people with cancer.

Healthier Than Ever listeners receive 20% off through the links below.

Calm & Clarity Plan

Gentle, foundational options for general nervous-system and stress support, including magnesium, L-theanine, and gentle adaptogens.

20% off — htever.com/calm

Smoothie Add-Ins Plan

Simple nutritional add-ins for building a more nourishing smoothie, including options such as protein, collagen, flax, and greens.

20% off — htever.com/smoothie

If you choose to purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. That support helps offset some of the costs of producing "Healthier Than Ever."

What happens when the rest of the world is asleep - but your mind is still racing?

In this episode of Healthier Than Ever, Dr. Toni Balfour sits down with writer, meditation teacher, former insomniac, and longtime friend Meline Nadeau for an honest conversation about insomnia, anxiety, meditation, and the strange vulnerability of being awake in the middle of the night.

Meline began struggling with sleep when she was only 11 or 12 years old. For years, insomnia was treated as something she simply had to endure. It wasn’t until her young daughter began experiencing similar nighttime anxiety during the pandemic that Meline started looking more deeply for another way.

That search led her to meditation training and eventually inspired her to create Goodnight Toes, a gentle body-scan sleep meditation for children.

Toni and Meline talk about what to do when you wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. with your mind spinning, why familiar voices and stories can help the nervous system settle, and how writing down a fear or unfinished task can make it easier to set it aside until morning.

They also explore the shame that can surround sleep: shame about insomnia, shame about needing help, and even the strange pride our culture sometimes attaches to functioning on very little rest.

The conversation moves beyond sleep tips into something deeper: learning not to fight every uncomfortable thought, feeling, or sensation. Meline explains why meditation is not about achieving a perfectly empty mind, but about noticing where the mind goes and gently returning to the present.

They also discuss nightmares, sleeping beside a dog, bedtime routines, night owls versus early birds, and how people facing illness or overwhelming fear can find brief moments of steadiness without needing to solve everything at once.

Because at 4 a.m., everything can feel catastrophic. Sometimes the most important thing to remember is that you do not have to figure out your entire life before the sun comes up. 

In This Episode

•  Meline’s experience with insomnia beginning in childhood 
•  Why her daughter’s sleep struggles changed the way she viewed her own 
•  How Goodnight Toes grew from a bedtime body scan 
•  What to do when you wake up anxious in the middle of the night 
•  Why writing things down can help quiet the mind 
•  The comfort of familiar meditations, audiobooks, and calming voices 
•  How pets may provide a sense of safety and companionship at night 
•  Nightmares, vivid dreams, and emotional processing 
•  The complicated relationship between sleep and shame 
•  Why “burning the candle at both ends” is not a superpower 
•  Creating a realistic bedtime wind-down routine 
•  Meditation during illness, fear, and uncertainty 
•  Why accepting discomfort can sometimes reduce its power 
•  Whether night owls truly need to become morning people 
•  Developing a kinder, less adversarial relationship with sleep 

Resources from Toni

These are a few of the resources I mention throughout the podcast and frequently recommend in my clinical practice. Members of the Healthier Than Ever community receive 20% off anything they choose to order through these links. You don’t need everything - start small with what feels right for you, and always check with your medical team before beginning any new supplement or therapy.

• Restorative Sleep Plan                                                                                                  A collection of sleep-supportive supplements and products, including magnesium, calming nutrients, and gentle sleep support.                                    Use this link for 20% off - - htever.com/sleep
• Calm & Clarity Plan                                                                                                       A collection of supplements and products I often recommend for nervous-system support, mental overwhelm, and a greater sense of steadiness, including magnesium, L-theanine, and gentle adaptogens.                             Use this link for 20% off - - htever.com/calm

Connect with Meline Nadeau

• Can’t Sleep at Nite

         Sleep, meditation, and mindfulness resources from Meline Nadeau. Visit https://cantsleepatnite.com

• Goodnight Toes

Meline’s gentle body-scan sleep meditation for children.

Find Goodnight Toes on Amazon

Keith Ayers: The Obligation of the Cured | Finding Meaning After Cancer

When Keith Ayers was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma at just 22 years old, his life changed overnight. A law student with his future carefully mapped out, he suddenly found himself facing chemotherapy, uncertainty, and questions no one expects to ask at such a young age.

In this conversation, Keith shares how conventional cancer treatment, integrative therapies, meditation, acupuncture, and an unexpected passion for storytelling helped transform one of the hardest chapters of his life into a source of meaning and purpose.

Together, we explore resilience, survivor's guilt, the healing power of story, and what Keith calls "the obligation of the cured" - the idea that our hardest experiences can become gifts we offer to others.

Whether you're living with cancer, supporting someone who is, or simply navigating a difficult season of life, I hope this conversation leaves you feeling a little less alone.

In this episode

• Receiving a diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma at age 22
• Finding the right oncologist and the importance of a second opinion
• Integrating meditation, acupuncture, Reiki, and conventional cancer care
• The role of storytelling in healing
• Losing a close friend to the same disease
• Survivor's guilt and finding meaning after cancer
• Alan Watts, Ram Dass, and the teachers who shaped Keith's perspective
• Why Keith believes survivors have "an obligation of the cured"

About Keith

Keith Ayers is an Emmy-nominated film producer, writer, and storyteller whose work explores resilience, meaning, and the human experience.

After surviving Ewing's sarcoma at age 22, he shifted from a career in law to filmmaking, creating stories that examine healing, perspective, and transformation. His Emmy-nominated documentary Clemente reflects his passion for meaningful storytelling, and he is currently developing projects centered on the lives and teachings of Alan Watts and Ram Dass.

Resources

• Clemente (Emmy-nominated documentary): https://clemente.film/

Keith also mentions the work of Alan Watts and Ram Dass as important influences on his healing journey.

Alan Watts

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBmuvR9QYLs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVerqpMjYYg

Ram Dass

• https://www.ramdass.org/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Dass

Resources from Toni

These are a few of the resources I mention throughout the podcast and frequently recommend in my clinical practice. You don't need everything - start with what feels right for you, and always check with your medical team before beginning any new supplement or therapy.

• The Foundational Energy Support Plan (A gentle, low-intervention starting point with B vitamins, CoQ10, & adaptogens to support cellular energy):     Use this link for 20% off - - http://htever.com/energy
• The Restorative Sleep Support Plan (Just a couple of foundational, calming nutrients to help your body naturally ease into deep, restorative rest):          Use this link for 20% off - - http://htever.com/sleep

This isn't one of my usual episodes.

It's a short, personal message for my friends, family, and patients - especially those who may be surprised to discover that I'm now hosting a podcast that includes conversations about living with Stage 4 lung cancer.

For a long time, I chose to keep my own health journey separate from my work. When I was with patients, my focus was always on them. And with friends and family... well, I've never liked making people worry.

In this mini episode, I share why that changed, how I came to start Healthier Than Ever, and why I believe these conversations matter.

If you know me personally, I'm so glad you're here.

And if you don't know me personally, you're welcome here too.

At the end of the episode, you'll also hear a short message from my daughter, Scarlett. If you'd like to support the groundbreaking lung cancer research of my oncologist, Dr. Ravi Salgia, you can learn more or make a donation at htever.com/donate

Larry Miller built his own integrative cancer treatment before integrative oncology was a field anyone talked about. He's a licensed acupuncturist in Los Angeles now, an ultramarathoner, and someone I met in Chinese medicine school in the mid-90s. At 21, he was on a summer program in Washington, DC, when a cold that wouldn't clear turned into daily nosebleeds, then polyps, then a biopsy he wasn't awake for. He came out of surgery to find out it was cancer before anyone told him directly: stage 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Burkitt type.

He went through a modified CHOP protocol with intrathecal chemotherapy (chemo delivered through a spinal tap, because his tumors were close to his brain), lost 25 pounds in two months, and then did something most 21-year-olds wouldn't have the nerve to try: he stopped treatment for a few months, moved into a trailer in the mountains above Santa Barbara, and juiced, did colonics, and worked with herbs to see if his body could do the healing another way. It couldn't, not entirely, and he went back to chemo on a schedule he negotiated himself, blending both approaches instead of choosing one.

We also get into his brother's death at 15 (three and a half years before Larry's own diagnosis), the fistfight he had with his dad over whether to restart chemo, and how psychedelics shaped his healing after both experiences. That period is part of why Larry ended up in Chinese medicine school. He spent years afterward lecturing at cancer support groups before building a broader practice in sports medicine and fertility. Treating pain and injury is one of his particular strengths, which tracks given he's logging 100-mile races himself. We talk through where acupuncture actually helps cancer patients (dry mouth from radiation, peripheral neuropathy, stress, pain) and where oncologists are cautious about herbs.

The second half is about ultramarathons: how a bike accident derailed his Ironman training and rerouted him into 50Ks, 100Ks, and eventually 100-mile races, and what finishing one of those teaches you about the excuses we make when something is hard.

A future episode will go deeper into psychedelics and cancer, a topic Larry and I only scratch the surface of here.

Connect with Larry Miller, L.Ac.
Venice Acupuncture (his clinical practice in LA): veniceacupuncture.com
Hit Balm (his pain relief balm): hitbalm.com

Supplement Plans Mentioned:
I keep this simple: one or two things at a time, not a routine that takes over your medicine cabinet. Always check with your care team first.
Calm & Clarity Plan (magnesium, L-theanine, for a wired nervous system): htever.com/calm
Sleep & Recovery Plan (a couple of calming nutrients to help you wind down): htever.com/sleep

This episode touches on gun violence, family conflict, and psychedelic use during and after cancer treatment. It's not medical advice.

There is a mac and cheese ball at the center of this story. I did not see that coming either.

In this first episode of Healthier Than Ever, my longtime friend Libby Silverman - television writer, producer, and co-host of the Do Over Divas podcast - sits down with me to help me tell the story of how I got here. How a healthy, non-smoking doctor of Chinese medicine ended up with a Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. And how I found my way from that moment to this podcast.

We go through all of it. The mysterious abdominal pain that sent me to the ER twice with no answers. The incredible surgeon who figured out what everyone else had missed. The 7-millimeter lung nodule that a doctor told me not to worry about. The CT scan results I read sitting on my couch, alone with my daughter, that completely changed everything in about three seconds.

We talk about what it felt like to go from "lucky - they caught it at Stage 1" to "Stage 4 and metastatic." About getting on a plane to Africa with biopsy results arriving mid-trip and watching elephants from a safari while trying to process what was happening. About the moments I had to tell my daughter, my parents, and my patients. And the moments I decided not to.

And we talk about City of Hope, Dr. Salgia, PDL-1 scores, and immunotherapy. And the City of Hope doctor who told me something I think about all the time: live to live, not to live to not die.

This is the episode that explains why this podcast exists.

What we cover:

• Life before the diagnosis - who I was and how I lived
• The Elton John Emmys event, the mac and cheese balls, and the pain that started everything
• The abdominal abscess, the hospital stay, and the guardian angel surgeon
• How an acupuncture needle may have accidentally saved my life
• Finding a lung nodule nobody was worried about
• The CT scan results that changed everything, and what it felt like to read them alone
• Stage 1 lung cancer: feeling like the luckiest cancer patient in the world
• A year of healing, planning an Africa trip, and believing it was all behind me
• Finding the lump. Again.
• How I went from Stage 1 to Stage 4
• Getting a second opinion at City of Hope and finding Dr. Salgia
• PDL-1 scores, and why every tumor should be tested separately
• What immunotherapy actually looks like, day by day
• Telling my daughter, my parents, and navigating the double life of being a cancer patient who looks completely healthy
• What "Healthier Than Ever" really means when you have Stage 4 cancer

About Libby Silverman: Libby Silverman is a television writer, producer, and host of the Do Over Divas podcast. She is also a dear friend and exactly the right person to help me tell this story. Find her at dooverdivas.com and on Instagram at @dooverdivaspodcast.

Mentioned in this episode:

• City of Hope: cityofhope.org
• Do Over Divas Podcast: https://dooverdivas.com/
• Dr. Toni's Smoothie Add-Ins on Fullscript (20% off): htever.com/smoothie
• Clean and Gentle Skin Care on Fullscript (20% off): htever.com/skin

Connect with Toni:

• Website: https://www.behealthierthanever.com 
• Instagram: @htever.pod 
• TikTok: @healthier_than_ever 
• YouTube: @HTEverPodcast 

This is the official trailer for Healthier Than Ever - a podcast about healing beyond the diagnosis.

Dr. Antonia Balfour is a holistic doctor, a mother, and a non-smoker who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer at 53. In this short intro, she shares the story behind the show and the heart behind the journey.

If you're navigating illness, caring for someone who is, or simply seeking a deeper kind of wellness... you're in the right place.

New episodes coming soon.