Have you ever devoured a book in a day?

Well that’s exactly what I did with The Healing Power of Storytelling - an incredibly profound book written by my guest, Annie Brewster. Annie is an Assistant Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, a writer, and a storyteller. She is also a patient, diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. She started recording patient narratives in 2010 and, integrating her personal experiences with the research supporting the health benefits of narrative, founded Health Story Collaborative (HSC) in 2013.

In this episode we explore the grief involved in a diagnosis, the lessons she learned about the healing power of narratives, the elements of storytelling that can help bring improved outcomes to our physical, psychological and emotional well-being and so much more.

Read The Healing Power of Storytelling by Annie Brewster, MD

(03:32) - A Traumatic childhood event as an early experience of grief

(07:32) - Addressing grief inside the medical field

(11:14) - Disappointment as a form of grief and the diagnosis that encouraged Annie to write a book 

(20:28) - Collective patient stories: A call to integrate grief into our own personal narratives

(25:37) - The five key qualities behind Annie’s methodology of meaning making

(35:08) - Shaping our own stories to overcome the universal ‘master’ Narratives

(43:25) - The transformative power of sharing stories between doctors and patients

If you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how host Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter follow on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!

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