Our Stories
Here’s what’s happening on in our corner of Narrative Medicine. What’s going on in yours? Drop us a line and let us know!
The Moment of Truth
On May 26th, Seattle’s Share Baillie Bed & Breakfast hosted The Interstitium: The Moment of Truth. There was a collection of 8 storytellers, all so graciously willing to share their stories. However, before the event began, Dr. Sam Blackman facilitated two The Moment of Truth: Storytelling Workshops. Dr. Blackman is a Moth Grand Slam winner, pediatric oncologist,…
Learning to Put the “Care” in Healthcare
I currently attend Lewis & Clark College, where I am a health studies minor. I was taking Public Health this year and we had to attend “Narrative Scribe Training- Signal and Noise: Scribing in the Margins”. What started out as an unknown became an experience that continues to shape my daily interactions. In Narrative Scribe…
On a Night that Changed My Life
It was late Friday night when the audience filtered through doors to the chapel at Lewis & Clark College and the zoom waiting room was filling up just as quickly. The audience on both ends were buzzing, and the physical space was filled with warmth. In the first hybrid interstitium since the start of the…
Two Things Can Be True: Celebrating the Together Well Project
Two and a half years ago, Together Well started with what Brian Park, one of the leaders, called “zero foresight and full curiosity to understand the world better.” Together Well was a culmination of empathy and connection and resulted in a co-created story that articulates the superhuman-ness in all of us. The project celebrated its…
Dreams
I am a terrible story-teller, by dinner party definition. Small talk can spiral out of control. Lovely weather we’re having. Blue was the first color to be synthetically produced. The 9/11 Commission Report opens with “dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States.” The World Meteorological Organization publishes the International Cloud Atlas. In…
What is your narrative medicine?
This is the first in a series of discussions with health professionals who use narrative medicine in their work. Together we hope to answer the question: What is narrative medicine? If you’d like to be included in this conversation, drop us an email! Dr. David Schleich, PhD President Emeritus, National University of Natural Medicine [Portland,…
¡LLAMANDO A TODOS LOS CUENTADORES! ¿Tiene una historia de COVID que contar?
Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative (NWNMC) y Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good (MACG) están encantados de presentar “El Intersticio,” una noche de historias de nuestra comunidad sobre la vida durante la pandemia de COVID. “El Intersticio” es un espacio para que nuestra comunidad puede compartir las historias sobre las relaciones personales que todos tenemos con la…
Pink Purple Orange and Blue
by Hope SasekFebruary 27, 2005 Screaming, squalling, red faced and a fractured clavicle suctioned and rushed to the NICU, six pounds, five ounces of new life measured, named, and cradled in the warmth of the incubator. Twenty-one days later, Hannah came home in mother’s arms and to sleep on father’s chest; nursed, nourished, loved,…
The List: 26 Statements Reflecting Non-Disabled Persons’ Privilege
(Modeled after White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack created by Prof. Peggy McIntosh. The first ten have been taken, with minor adaptations, from her White Privilege article) 1. Most of the time I can, if I wish, arrange to be around people who share my disability status, either disabled or non-disabled. 2. History textbooks include…
“we all make mistakes. If we live in this world…”
Writing from Community of Practice Dr. Cirila Estela Vasquez Guzman shared a raw paragraph she wrote during Ripping the Bandaid Off: Addressing Racism as a Public Health Crisis, led by Leslie Gregory. Read on! Ripping the band-aid off is the moment when you realize you yourself can be biased as well. No one is immune…
Three Hour Glucose Test
I have wished to be silent, to sleep deeply,my body grown large again. Cravingonly the juices – no pulp, no bone.Before, my prayers were always thy will not mine. Now I want only this small life inside. Not in return for anything. The arc of a small arm in blackness, texture of spine. Five vials of drawn blood. I have eaten sugar and…
I am the emotion for this machine
Her eyes blink heavilybeneath a sloppy wigChest rising and fallingHeart beating hardas I touch my sister’s wrist She can’t reactwhen the nurses drag the breathing tubeacross her eye, let it sit tangled in her hair so I wince instead, ask them to be carefulremind them she is my sister I am showing the care they…
Connections in Narrative Medicine
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MedHumChat
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Narrative Healthcare
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The Nocturnists
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