Visit 1

During Visit 1, Clinicians and survivors review the introduction and overview of MAAT and the eight-session training schedule. The education component covers cancer background, significance, and causes topics as well as helping survivors recognize that not all memory/attention failures are cancer/treatment related (re-attribution). MAAT highlights the important rationale that, while we can’t know at the causes of cancer-related memory problems, we do know that factors such as stress, fatigue, and the divided attention of busy, daily life also contribute to memory problems—and we can change environment, stress response, and manage fatigue through the use of compensatory strategies aimed a minimizing the effects of memory failures. Self-awareness is introduced, and self-monitoring forms are explained and assigned for homework in order to identify the environmental, affective, and cognitive antecedents of memory failures in daily life. Survivors are guided through a Progressive Muscle Relaxation procedure and instructed for home practice with a provided recording.