LEWISTON – “Creating Sacred Space” is the topic of the Tuesday, Oct. 21, installment of the “Growing Through Cancer: Your Personal Toolkit” workshop series being presented by the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing at Central Maine Medical Center.

The presenter for all the events in the series is Marcy Covey, a CMMC wellness instructor and owner of Dragonfly Healing Touch, a Thai yoga bodywork studio in Poland. Participants in the Oct. 21 program will learn to create healing space within and around themselves.

“Cancer creates the opportunity for people to take stock and make new priorities in their lives. This workshop series, which focuses on personal growth and development, will help participants to learn new skills to make the changes they desire in order to live their most fulfilling life,” said Kerry Irish, director of the Patrick Dempsey Center.

The series also includes the following:

Oct. 28, “Meditation”: Meditation can be a useful tool for making an individual’s life more peaceful, gentle, manageable and kind.

Nov. 4, “Satisfied Mind, Satisfied Body”: Meditation, exercise and gentle yoga postures can help individuals gain a renewed sense of well being, even when dealing with cancer. Participants will learn personal skills for coping during the best and worst of times.

Covey recently finished four years of training with Thai yoga healing arts instructor Jonas Westring. She has also studied Thai yoga massage with Kam Thye Chow of the Lotus Palm School of Massage in Montreal and has attained certification in pre-natal Thai yoga bodywork through the Palm School.

A Vermont native, she graduated from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and went on to create an exercise-wellness program for North Country Hospital in Newport, Vt. In the early 1990s she created the first wellness programs at CMMC, helping to design the CMMC Wellness Center, which she managed from 1995 through 2002.

She continues to serve as a wellness instructor at the hospital-based facility, where she teaches yoga classes, leads Fit n’ Fun exercise classes for seniors and assists with the Wellness for Life program for cancer patients and survivors by introducing them to yoga.

She is certified in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, ropes course facilitation, lifeguarding, lifeguard instruction, water safety instruction, cross country skiing and a variety of exercise modes.

All “Growing Through Cancer” sessions meet from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Patrick Dempsey Center, 12 High St., Suite 301.

There is no fee for attendance, and preregistration is required to attend. Sessions are open to cancer patients, survivors and caregivers.

Anyone with questions or wishing to preregister should call 795-8251 or 1-877-DEMPCTR.