The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss

Our healthcare system isn't set up to meet the emotional needs of patients. Doctors can give you a life-changing diagnosis, but they're not equipped to help you deal with the inner fallout: the confusion, anxiety, trauma, and dread that comes after "I have some bad news." But storytelling your way through a medical crisis by digging into, intentionally crafting and ultimately sharing your narrative, can help you come to terms with a difficult diagnosis, find and create new ways to thrive, and reclaim your agency amid fear, change, and uncertainty.

When Harvard-trained physician Dr. Annie Brewster was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001, she realized firsthand that the medical system to which she'd devoted her entire career was failing patients. The experience was dehumanizing. Her doctors weren't listening. And the confusion, fear, and shame she felt around her diagnosis was preventing her from finding healing, claiming her story, and living her fullest, richest life.

Here, Dr. Brewster and journalist Rachel Zimmerman share their own healing stories--and act as expert guides to help you move forward, reframe your story, and take back your life. With exercises, reflections, writing prompts, and stories from other real patients, Brewster and Zimmerman provide concrete ways to:
- Process the difficult emotions inherent to a life-changing diagnosis
- Move beyond being the hero of your own story to become the author of your own story
- Craft your narrative and share it in whatever medium you choose: music, audio, art, or other ways of storytelling
- Integrate a traumatic health event into a new, evolving identity
- Harness applied storytelling techniques to strengthen connections between you and your loved ones (and even your care providers)
- Cultivate resilience and move forward amid uncertainty and fear