Narrative Medicine

By now, everyone is seeing a word increase in use that is surprising. Storytelling is the word. When we were small, it meant a feature of bedtime, a story someone read to us, if we were so fortunate. As we grew older, it became less seldom used. Maybe it denoted a lie were spinning to get out of trouble, or maybe a Dungeons and Dragons world that we built with friends after school. By the time we were grown, it was something left behind. Then a storytelling renaissance started to happen around the late 1980s. By the early 90s there were storytelling and events festivals. By the early 2000s, the term “storytelling” and its more academic-sounding twin, “narrative” merged with Medicine on the cover of not one but two books, Narrative Medicine by Dr. Rita Charon, MD, PhD., and Narrative Medicine by Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD. The former emerged from a heady union of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the university’s Philosophy, Divinity, Creative Writing, and Narrative Theory programs. The latter emerged from the Cherokee and Lakota Sioux traditions recognizing a kinship with the Narrative Therapy work of Michael White in Australia. Two very different books led readers to one stunning notion: our stories hold medicine. Within a decade, evidence-based data supported Story’s ability to heal physical and psychological pain, as well trauma.

At a time in America’s history when anger reigns even within the nicest among us, it may seem impossible to envision a way out of the cycle of hate. A mere eavesdrop on the national conversations around politics yields heartbreaking rhetoric. Entire television and radio networks seem to foam at the mouth, each one supported by millions of viewers. All sides claim to be right. All sides feel hate. We are all sucked into it. Things seem really, really bleak. And is isn’t limited to the United States. We are all on a hair trigger. We are all in search of an alternative to decimation as an end to this story. What if it isn’t impossible? What if there is a way beyond all this opposition? What if it is at the tip of our tongue? What if it’s your story?

This sea of data points to something truly hopeful and meaningful. Stories heal. Our stories can heal us. Our stories can help others to heal. Stories are medicine of the stuff that drugs don’t reach.

This is where The Story Shepherds come in. Not just to heal the sick. To heal the world.