To many cancer patients, Bernie Siegel is a calm, reassuring voice in the darkness. He is the creator of several best-selling books and audiotapes, including Love, Medicine & Miracles and Prescriptions for Living, focusing on the mind/body connection to the healing process.

Though a target of some criticism in the past for a viewpoint that may have been considered "alternative", Dr. Siegel's approach in Getting Ready is complementary to traditional therapeutic modalities. He is careful from the onset to urge listeners to embrace traditional medical therapies such as surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy if recommended, and to view visualization and meditation as an enhancements to and not substitutions for them. "The body has an intelligence of its own" he contends, and it is waiting to be tapped into through intention and desire on the part of the patient.

After a brief introduction for those who may have no prior experience with mind/body techniques, ("Think of it as going to school in your own personal limousine"), Dr. Siegel sets aside about twenty minutes to focus on each therapy - surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Each section has suggestions about how to make patients feel more involved in the process, more comfortable with their bodies, and less anxious about the treatments. These include bringing favorite music into the operating room, marking the surgical site with a message to the operating team ('cut into this breast, not the other one please!),making eye contact with each of the doctors and nurses before the surgery, and even a small empowerment gesture such as bringing a token gift for the staff as a thank-you afterwards.

For treatments while the patient is awake he suggests using visualization techniques targeted toward the tumor. With radiation therapy, for example, he suggests there may be ways to minimize body trauma and maximize treatment effectiveness by adding focus and targeted visualized energy, i.e. "melting the tumor like a block of ice". He also suggests other tools to reduce body trauma and as an example cites one of his patients who had minimal skin redness after radiation treatments because she "visualized her cells moving apart and making way for the beam to pass through."

Visualization and meditation may not be everyone's cup of tea but Dr. Siegel's techniques and kindly-voiced guidance support those individuals who want to take this route to augment their treatment.

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