The Liminal Space of Diagnosis and the Benefit of Pause

With a diagnosis - life cleaves into a before and an after. The scan, the biopsy, the call. The word: cancer. Or another name that radically pulls the ground from beneath you.

This moment ushers us into a liminal space - a threshold realm where the world as we knew it begins to dissolve, and the new one has not yet taken shape.

Liminal comes from the Latin limen, meaning threshold. It is the in-between place, often invisible to others, yet deeply felt by those at the edge. Those who enter it know that something irreversible has begun. 

For the one who receives the diagnosis, this space can feel surreal. Time slows. Sounds distort. You may find yourself watching the world carry on as if nothing has happened - while inside, a seismic shift has occurred. You no longer recognize the terrain of your own life.

For caregivers and loved ones, the threshold is different, but still very real. You may be standing beside someone whose landscape has changed while your own is just beginning to shift. You want to help, to fix, to do something - but in the liminal space, so much of what matters is intangible: presence, attunement, the ability to hold uncertainty without collapsing into it.

This space is a place to be tended.

In many traditional cultures, thresholds are sacred. They are honoured, marked, even ritualised. In the West, we often rush to “next steps” - treatment plans, specialist referrals, second opinions - without making room for the emotional and spiritual rupture that has just occurred. Healing begins by acknowledging the threshold itself.

What if we paused here, in this space? Time to catch your breath. 

What if we could say: Something precious has broken open. I don’t know who I will be on the other side

In the liminal, there is fear, yes - but also a strange kind of clarity if you stop and listen for just a bit. Connect to that felt sense, that inner wisdom, that knows you better than any other. 

To walk this path with soul means honouring the mystery of the threshold. Not rushing through it but allowing it to shape us.

If you - or someone you love - finds yourself in this space, may you be met with gentleness. May you find companions who can sit in the dark with you, without needing to light the way. 

This is not the end of the story. But a place where something sacred is unfolding.