Narrative Medicine: �Stories Can Heal and Reveal�

Narrative Medicine Workshop: Session 1

Brown School of Public Health

March 3, 2026

Facilitated by: Mariah Stump, MD, MPH, FACP

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Clinician Educator

Brown University Health

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�-Author Robin Moore

“Inside each of us is a natural-born storyteller, waiting to be released”

The field of Narrative Medicine

Rita Charon, MD, PhD, Department of General Internal Medicine, Columbia University

• “Interdisciplinary field that brings powerful narrative skills of radical listening and creativity from the humanities and the arts to address the needs of all who seek and deliver health care.”
• Enables patients and caregivers to voice their experience, to be heard, to be recognized, and to be valued, improving the delivery of health care.
• This evolving transdisciplinary field of inquiry addresses issues of structural inequality and social justice in healthcare.

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History of Narrative Medicine

• In 2000, Dr. Charon and colleagues at Columbia received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
• The group explored and began to articulate the consequences of bringing literary and creative practices into the realm of health care
• Narrative Medicine emerged as a formal field of medicine:

“A rigorous intellectual and clinical discipline to fortify healthcare”

We document our lives/world through stories�We remember stories more than facts�We relate to the stories of others�History is documented in stories �

Why does Narrative Medicine resonate?

Dr Charon introduced medical students to:

• Literary texts about illness, to practice interpreting patients' stories
• Reflective writing, to write about the experiences of both the patient and the clinician.

• “We cannot have direct access to the experience of others' illness, not even through in-depth investigations: one of the ways in which we can learn more from the experience of others is to listen to the stories of what has happened to them."

-Byron Good, PhD

Professor of Medical Anthropology

Chairman of the Department of Social Medicine, Harvard University

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In this space, you can bring in the stressors of the day, the clinic, and the world. This is a way to process these powerful emotions and start regulating them.

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This strategy can be used in groups of trainees, colleagues across disciplines that make up a team, or with collections of patients.

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Narrative Medicine

• Can prevent or reverse the emotional exhaustion seen with burnout.
• By implementing proven frameworks for observation/listening, reflecting, and writing in a group, Stories can heal.
• Can improve team cohesion - sharing stories leads to a greater connection and sense of inclusion and belonging.
• Leads to facilitation of meaning making through the act of reflection.  
• Can augment your skills as a healthcare professional.
• Practicing deep listening skills can enhance your attention in the exam room.

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Loy M, Kowalsky R. Narrative Medicine: The Power of Shared Stories to Enhance Inclusive Clinical Care, Clinician Well-Being, and Medical Education. Perm J. 2024 Jun 14;28(2):93-101.

Narrative Medicine

• Helps you shed your fear of something new.
• In this environment, a spark of curiosity and creativity can remind you of your younger days and inspire you to share your voice.
• It is a safe space for exploration.
• Helps improve emotional intelligence by encouraging personal awareness and learning. Stories reveal.
• Facilitates the skill of empathy (the ability to observe and understand the feelings and needs of others).
• Enhances community.
• In groups of physicians, sharing of stories leads to a greater connection.

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Loy M, Kowalsky R. Narrative Medicine: The Power of Shared Stories to Enhance Inclusive Clinical Care, Clinician Well-Being, and Medical Education. Perm J. 2024 Jun 14;28(2):93-101

Narrative Medicine: Key practices

• Sharing Stories
• Close Reading
• Reflective Writing
• Radical Listening

Close reading heightens our awareness, our senses and encourages us to listen in a different way than we are used to….practice observing!

On Fear��It is said that before entering the sea�a river trembles with fear.�She looks back at the path she has traveled,�from the peaks of the mountains,�the long winding road crossing forests and villages.�And in front of her,�she sees an ocean so vast,�that to enter�there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.��But there is no other way.�The river can not go back.�Nobody can go back.�To go back is impossible in existence.�The river needs to take the risk�of entering the ocean�because only then will fear disappear,�because that’s where the river will know�it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,�but of becoming the ocean.��-Khalil Gibran� �

What words, themes or language stand out to you?��Why does the river need to take the risk of entering the ocean?��How do you feel reading this poem?��What emotions come up?��

Prompt:

�When was the last time you took a risk?

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• Write about it for 5 minutes
• What does it mean to you/how to you identify with it?
• Do you think risk is inevitable?

Stories Need Readers-

it’s up to the recipient to interpret it!

Break up in groups—challenge yourself to share your story!

Invitations

• Invitations to Writers to share their story
• Invitation to Listeners to reflect and share what they heard – not a critique
• Storyteller will tell us about their experience of being heard
• Can repeat another story…

Parting wisdom

"No matter how efficient medicine becomes... it will always boil down to one caregiver with one patient, in one room, with one story." – Danielle Ofri

See you next month!

• Session 2: April 7
• Session 3: May 5

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Questions?

Mariah_Stump@brown.edu

References

• Charon, Rita, Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy, Reflection, Profession, and Trust; JAMA 2001:286:1897-1902
• Charon, Rita, Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness, New York: Oxford, 2006
• Charon, Rita et. al. The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. New York: Oxford, 2017.
• Barber S, Moreno-Leguizamon CJ. Can narrative medicine education contribute to the delivery of compassionate care? A review of the literature. Med Humanit. 2017 Sep;43(3):199-203. (doi: 10.1136/medhum-2017-011242.)
• Chen, P. J., Huang, C. D., & Yeh, S. J. Impact of a narrative medicine program on healthcare providers’ empathy scores over time. BMC Medical Education 2017, 17(1), 1-8.
• Muneeb, A., et.al. The art of healing through narrative medicine in clinical practice: a reflection. The Permanente Journal, 2017; 21.
• Winkel, Abigail et.al. Narrative Medicine Workshops for Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents and Association With Burnout Measures; Obstet Gynecol 2016 Oct;128 Suppl 1:27S-33S. (doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000001619. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27662003/)
• Stump, M, McCrary M, Shafi, F. Truly Attending: Cultivating Attention, Presence and Self-Awareness through Narrative Medicine Workshops. Vol 108, Number 3, ISSN 2327-2228. March 2025.