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Columbia Narrative Medicine Narrative Medicine fortifies clinical practice with the narrative competence to recognize, absorb, m

The Clearing:

"...the Clearing--a wide-open place cut deep in the woods nobody knew for what at the end of the path known only to deer and whoever cleared the land in the first place." ~ Toni Morrison (Beloved)

Narrative Medicine fortifies clinical practice with the narrative competence to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by the stories of illness. Through narrative trainin

g, the Program in Narrative Medicine helps physicians, nurses, social workers, mental health professionals, chaplains, social workers, academics, and all those interested in the intersection between narrative and medicine improve the effectiveness of care by developing these skills with patients and colleagues. Our research and outreach missions are conceptualizing, evaluating, and spear-heading these ideas and practices nationally and internationally.

Journalist Sarah Singer shares how Columbia's CPA in Narrative Medicine helped her harness the power of storytelling to ...
24/07/2025

Journalist Sarah Singer shares how Columbia's CPA in Narrative Medicine helped her harness the power of storytelling to combat physician burnout and improve patient care. Now as a strategist advisor at Offcall, she’s helping doctors reclaim their stories—and their well-being.

Like many, Sarah Singer became interested in our health care systems during the pandemic. Research led her to the works of Dr. Rita Charon, and decided to use her talents to help improve health care any way she could. In the CPA program, she learned about the intersectionality of healthcare, and how powerful intentional storytelling can be within medical environments.

“As a journalist and writer, I appreciated the opportunity to connect with such smart, warm, and creative change-makers. I left so many sessions and classes feeling inspired by the elevated and thoughtful level of discussion within the community.”

Community has left a lasting impression on Sarah, saying “The expertise and experiences of the talented physicians, health care workers, and the overall diverse community of professionals within the CPA program are unique and worth celebrating.” Her favorite part of her time here was the weekend workshop that proved both personal and professional growth can come through connection rooted in storytelling.

Now at Offcall, a platform designed to reverse physician burnout through financial well-being, Sarah uses storytelling as a central part of her work in trying to capture the physician experience and a range of perspectives using different formats like opinion pieces, videos, podcasts, and facilitated discussions.

https://sps.columbia.edu/news/journalists-perspective-narrative-medicine-combatting-physician-burnout-and-systemic

Meet Miniya N. Williams- a graduate of the MS in Narrative Medicine class of ‘25 and student marshal in this year’s comm...
22/07/2025

Meet Miniya N. Williams- a graduate of the MS in Narrative Medicine class of ‘25 and student marshal in this year’s commencement ceremony.

Originally at Spelman college while studying psychology, she was drawn to NMed after watching a Youtube video and felt it click immediately. “I knew then that Narrative Medicine was more than a field—it was a calling,” she says. “I hoped to learn how to bridge clinical care with cultural and personal narratives, especially for marginalized communities whose voices are too often left out of medical spaces,” stating how she’s learned tools to implement in her holistic wellness coaching practice where people can re-author their own stories.

Highlights from her time in the program include living in vibrant NYC, presenting at Medical and Health Humanities: Global Perspectives conference in Doha, Qatar, and the meaningful friendships built. Miniya’s first day in Close Reading continues to work on her: “I remember hesitating to share what my partner had said because it felt sacred, like something meant just for the space between us. That was the moment I realized that storytelling can serve many purposes: connection, healing, reflection, even protection. It was a small exercise, but it became a foundational lesson I carried with me throughout the entire program.”

“Another moment I will always hold dear is presenting my final project in Embodied Borderlands with my son, Cairo, strapped to my chest. To do what I love while holding the person I love most close to me, that was one of the most rewarding experiences of this journey.”

One of the greatest lessons learned is seeing the, “sacredness of stories and the freedom that comes with being allowed to write without restriction.”
“I now understand that storytelling is a gift we offer others. It doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be real. Because when it’s real, it can become a mirror, allowing others to find themselves in it. Storytelling is medicine. It’s alchemizing. It’s sacred. And I intend to carry that truth into every part of my future work and personal practice.”

Miniya is the founder of “Mind Body Soulstice,” a health consultancy that offers holistic approaches to healing that honor the stories, bodies, and wisdom of women, particularly those within the African diaspora and marginalized communities. Next, she will be pursuing a PhD in Medical Anthropology “to further explore how narratives, spirituality, and cultural traditions can reshape health systems and reimagine care. Whether through research, consulting, or storytelling, my path forward is guided by a deep commitment to justice, embodiment, and collective healing.”

“To my graduating class and beloved cohort:
Narrative Medicine makes room for all of us. Your passions will meet your path in time, and when they do, you’ll find yourself exactly where you’re meant to be. Trust the unfolding. Congratulations!”

Congratulations to MS alumnx ’14 Annie Robinson and CPA alumnx ’23 Katie Grogan on their recent presentation “Attending ...
11/07/2025

Congratulations to MS alumnx ’14 Annie Robinson and CPA alumnx ’23 Katie Grogan on their recent presentation “Attending to Maternal Isolation: A Narrative Medicine Intervention” at the Thomas Jefferson Health Humanities Consortium annual Conference.

They ask the question, “What can Narrative Medicine offer in response to the angst and isolation of modern motherhood?” Subsequently, what does this look like in practice?

In their Narrative Motherhood workshops, they try to provide a response to the proposal, “Can the narrative tools we use with medical students and trainees to support their identity transformation help us navigate the identity transformation of matrescence?”

Congratulations to MS alumnx ’24 Gianna Paniagua on the recent publication of her graphic medicine comic in the Spring 2...
11/07/2025

Congratulations to MS alumnx ’24 Gianna Paniagua on the recent publication of her graphic medicine comic in the Spring 2025 edition of Bonus Days Magazine.

Created for Bonus Days, a magazine founded by a heart transplant recipient that features stories about organ transplant recipients, Gianna’s graphic medicine comic features a different story each month that is inspired by real events. She uses her own narrative as a 2x heart transplant patient as a base to guide larger questions about patient advocacy and chronic illness.

This month’s comic stresses the need for a social link to the transplant community, writing, “Friendships with people who try to understand us is crucial for anyone, transplant or not.”

Gianna writes of her own isolation as a child from others like her to make a case for the importance of connection to even one person within the transplant community. While the topics can be heavy and bring up images of hardships, she makes a point to always end her comics on a high note with hope.

To read the full comic, click on the link!
http://giannapaniagua.squarespace.com/graphic-medicine/2025/3/26/bonus-days-3-spring-issue

Congratulations to CPA alumnx ’19 Renée Nicholson on her recent publication of “Sur Les Pointes” in New Ohio Review on A...
11/07/2025

Congratulations to CPA alumnx ’19 Renée Nicholson on her recent publication of “Sur Les Pointes” in New Ohio Review on April 1, 2025.

Author of ‘Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness,’ and co-editor of Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives of Illness, Disability, and Medicine, Renée writes a story that merges her two worlds of poetry and ballet. She believes her position as a poet is a strength when it comes to her work as a ballet teacher. She writes, “Often, I must come up with ways to explain a step to students so that they can translate it within their own bodies.”

“Poetry is an act of expression, as well,” she states, “We write to express something that otherwise resists language. There is a technique hidden in a good poem, which allows our emotional response to it, easing us through movements of language.”

With a close reading of certain ballet phrases in their untranslated form, Renée then tries to decipher uses in moments of her own life that swirl poetry and the body together. She writes, “Lately, though, my life has been like one long string of translations, from ballet steps in my body, to the inner choreography of poems as I construct them on the page.”

Cover Art by Elizabeth Decker

Click on the link to read her work!
https://newohioreview.org/2025/03/01/sur-les-pointes/

Congratulations to Samantha Barrick, Affiliate Faculty in the Narrative Medicine Program, for her recent publication in ...
20/06/2025

Congratulations to Samantha Barrick, Affiliate Faculty in the Narrative Medicine Program, for her recent publication in Literature and Medicine, titled “The Insult Is in the FAQ.”

Examining popular questions found at the intersection of art and medicine, Barrick’s goal is, “to reveal underlying relationships of power, economy, and malappropriated™ imaginative labor in medical education and clinical settings. To do so, the author presents responses to three exemplary FAQs in unabashedly subjective manifestations of language including sarcasm, lyric, lament, defiance, and poetic wit, then organizes this data into four separate categories: Reframing Retorts, Analogies, Stage Whispers, and Apologetics.”

In a lively combination of poetic and analytical writing, Barrick weaves the reader through a thorough breakdown of the questions typically encountered and charts that present a condensed, easily-accessible picture.

Barrick asks, “is the way humanists and artists are treated in medical institutions analogous to the ways the internal lives of physicians are treated?”

Click on the link below to read the full article.

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/951018

JOIN US TOMORROW MAY 28th at 6pm EDT for our next Narrative Acts/Community Action, where we will be joined by narrative ...
27/05/2025

JOIN US TOMORROW MAY 28th at 6pm EDT for our next Narrative Acts/Community Action, where we will be joined by narrative medicine faculty and clinical anthropologist Edgar Rivera Colón, PhD and narrative medicine alumnx and multimedia artist and chronic illness patient advocate Sal Marx, who will share their work and experience with the community, including their collaborative narrative and visual art project, Lucid Dreaming Denial.

Narrative Acts/Community Action is a new narrative medicine virtual series to engage with our alumni, faculty and the global community as we explore through their work ways the humanities and creative arts are an actionable path toward community-centered change and responding to difficult times.

DETAILS AND REGISTRATION: https://tinyurl.com/narrative-acts-may2025

Congratulations to MS student Nafisa Hussein for winning a Columbia SPS award for Civic Engagement! “Throughout my life,...
22/05/2025

Congratulations to MS student Nafisa Hussein for winning a Columbia SPS award for Civic Engagement!

“Throughout my life, I have learned and experienced firsthand how some voices are silenced, and it is my goal to do everything I can to change that. Knowing I have created opportunities for people to feel valued and heard is rewarding to me,” Nafisa states, receiving this award during her second to last semester in the program.

Nafisa has served as the vice president of External Affairs in the SPS Student Government, keeping in mind that leadership is rooted in open communication. She also believes that empathy is at the heart of every successful interaction, which is something that helps propel her work as the chair of the Community Engagement Committee where she engages with the local community. This type of empathy-driven outreach is something she considers to be one of the most rewarding parts of her time here at SPS.

To read more about Nafisa and her time at Columbia check out the article below:
https://sps.columbia.edu/news/how-one-narrative-medicine-student-fostering-community-through-empathy

JOIN US NEXT WEEK MAY 28th at 6pm EDT for our next Narrative Acts/Community Action, where we will be joined by narrative...
21/05/2025

JOIN US NEXT WEEK MAY 28th at 6pm EDT for our next Narrative Acts/Community Action, where we will be joined by narrative medicine faculty and clinical anthropologist Edgar Rivera Colón, PhD and narrative medicine alumnx and multimedia artist and chronic illness patient advocate Sal Marx, who will share their work and experience with the community, including their collaborative narrative and visual art project, Lucid Dreaming Denial.

Narrative Acts/Community Action is a new narrative medicine virtual series to engage with our alumni, faculty and the global community as we explore through their work ways the humanities and creative arts are an actionable path toward community-centered change and responding to difficult times.

DETAILS AND REGISTRATION: https://tinyurl.com/narrative-acts-may2025

Congratulations to MS alumnx ‘25 for being a student marshal at this year’s Columbia SPS Commencement ceremony! Every ye...
21/05/2025

Congratulations to MS alumnx ‘25 for being a student marshal at this year’s Columbia SPS Commencement ceremony!

Every year, the program leadership selects one student for their exceptional academic achievements and personal contributions. During the ceremony, Miniya will serve as an outstanding representative of this community, leading their peers while carrying the program’s banner.

“What I value most about Narrative Medicine is its deeply collaborative and interdisciplinary spirit.I’ve especially appreciated the opportunity to exchange perspectives with my peers and engage meaningfully with the Harlem community. This program attracts compassionate changemakers, and it’s been an honor to grow in empathy and intellect alongside such remarkable faculty and fellow scholars,” says Miniya.

Congratulations again to Miniya and to all the graduates of this year’s cohort

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