Columbia Narrative Medicine

04/28/2026

Next Tuesday, May 5, join Narrative Medicine founder Rita Charon in conversation with acclaimed novelist Siri Hustvedt at NYPL The New York Public Library as Hustvedt reflects on the loss of her husband, Paul Auster, and her searing memoir of love and grief.

In Ghost Stories, Siri Hustvedt reflects on the 43 years she shared with her husband, writer Paul Auster, tracing their life together from their early days in 1980s New York to his death in 2024. The memoir gathers memories of their daily rituals alongside Auster’s final writings, including letters and an unfinished work addressed to his grandson. Moving between personal recollection and philosophical inquiry, Ghost Stories is a meditation on memory, love, and the lives we continue to carry. The Library is proud to hold the papers of Paul Auster, which date from 1963 to 2022 and contain all aspects of his professional work, including typescript and holograph drafts, notebooks, correspondence, audio and moving image recordings, clippings, and ephemera.

The event is free and open to the public, and will be streamed for those unable to attend in-person.

🎟️ Register: https://lnkd.in/dcsMNhwe

04/21/2026

Join us on Wednesday, May 6 at 6pm EDT for Narrative Medicine Rounds. For our final Rounds of the season, we are thrilled to welcome award-winning author Melissa Febos. Febos is the author of five books, including the national bestselling essay collection, Girlhood, which has been translated into ten languages and won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. Her craft book, Body Work (2022), was also a national bestseller and an LA Times Bestseller. Her most recent memoir, The Dry Season, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in June 2025.

In The Dry Season, Febos examines solitude, freedoms, and feminist heroes discovered during a year of celibacy. In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break—for three months she would abstain from dating, from relationships, and s*x. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Febos, it was. Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship after another. As she puts it, she could trace a “daisy chain of romances” from her adolescence to her mid-thirties. Finally, she would carve out time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that had produced her midlife disaster.

Bringing her own experiences into conversation with those of women throughout history—from Hildegard von Bingen, Virginia Woolf, and Octavia Butler to the Shakers and Sappho—Febos situates her story within a newfound lineage of role models who unapologetically pursued their ambitions and ideals. Infused with fearless honesty and keen intellect, it’s the memoir of a woman learning to live at the center of her own story, and a much-needed catalyst for a new conversation around s*x and love.

The recipient of fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts, the British Library, MacDowell, and others, Febos's work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Best American Essays, and more.

Details and Registration: https://shorturl.at/TAXc4

04/08/2026

Only 3 days left to register for Attention to Self and Other: Narrative Medicine in Practice, our virtual weekend intensive.

Join us April 17-19, and experience a transformative weekend of learning, attention, and connection with our faculty, facilitators, and a global community of narrative medicine practitioners.

Details and registration: https://bit.ly/AprilNM

04/07/2026

Join us tomorrow, April 8 at 6pm EDT for Narrative Medicine Rounds. This month, we are pleased to welcome clinical psychologist Dr. Monica Blum, who will be in conversation with journalist Katie Simon.

Dr. Blum has spent more than 30 years treating complex trauma in children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. Her groundbreaking book, Inviting the Spirit of Play to Transform Trauma: Healing for All Ages, explores how therapists can use a spirit of playfulness—not play therapy—to support healing. Blending relational, somatic, and developmentally informed approaches, her work demonstrates how playfulness can deepen attunement, strengthen relational safety, and open new pathways for working with trauma.

Drawing on decades of clinical practice and research, Dr. Blum will discuss how playfulness can help therapists approach difficult trauma symptoms, grief, and change while fostering autonomic regulation, emotional resilience, and connection. Through examples from her work, this conversation will explore how creativity, joy, and shared humanity can become powerful tools for trauma healing across the lifespan.

Registration: https://www.mhe.cuimc.columbia.edu/narrative-medicine/public-programming-and-events/narrative-medicine-rounds/april-narrative-medicine-rounds-dr-monica-blum

04/02/2026

Join us next Wednesday, April 8 at 6pm EDT for Narrative Medicine Rounds. In April, we are pleased to welcome clinical psychologist Dr. Monica Blum, who will be in conversation with journalist Katie Simon.

Dr. Blum has spent more than 30 years treating complex trauma in children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. Her groundbreaking book, Inviting the Spirit of Play to Transform Trauma: Healing for All Ages, explores how therapists can use a spirit of playfulness—not play therapy—to support healing. Blending relational, somatic, and developmentally informed approaches, her work demonstrates how playfulness can deepen attunement, strengthen relational safety, and open new pathways for working with trauma.

Drawing on decades of clinical practice and research, Dr. Blum will discuss how playfulness can help therapists approach difficult trauma symptoms, grief, and change while fostering autonomic regulation, emotional resilience, and connection. Through examples from her work, this conversation will explore how creativity, joy, and shared humanity can become powerful tools for trauma healing across the lifespan.

🔗 Register: https://www.mhe.cuimc.columbia.edu/narrative-medicine/public-programming-and-events/narrative-medicine-rounds/april-narrative-medicine-rounds-dr-monica-blum

04/01/2026

Our Spring workshop is almost here! Attention to Self and Other: Narrative Medicine in Practice brings together participants from around the world for an immersive weekend of close reading, reflective writing, and small group work with the founders of Narrative Medicine.

🎟️ Registration closes April 10.
🩺 Details & Tickets: bit.ly/AprilNM

03/30/2026

At Narrative Medicine, community is built through shared experience.

From our monthly Rounds to Volvox Speaker Series and guided tours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we bring students, alumni, faculty, and the broader public together for dialogue, reflection, and connection across disciplines.

Read more about ways to connect with us after the jump:

From alumni-led discussion series to visits to the Met, these programs create space for collaboration, mentorship, and creative insight.

03/26/2026

Early Bird pricing ends tomorrow, March 27.

Join us April 17–19 for Attention to Self and Other: Narrative Medicine in Practice, a three-day virtual workshop led by Columbia Narrative Medicine faculty.

Through close reading, reflective writing, and small-group discussion, participants develop the skills of attention, listening, and representation that are central to narrative medicine practice.

The virtual workshop only happens once a year and brings together clinicians, educators, writers, and scholars from around the world for an immersive and interactive learning experience.

Register by March 27 to receive $50 off tuition.

🔗 bit.ly/AprilNM

03/17/2026

During her time at Columbia University School of Professional Studies, Narrative Medicine alum Miniya Williams ('25SPS) balanced graduate study with new motherhood while exploring storytelling, facilitation, and community-based approaches to care.

“There were moments when my son sat beside me as I read, wrote, and reflected, reminding me that the questions we were asking about care, justice, and relationality were deeply personal and generational,” Williams writes in a new blog post. “Being a new mother while studying narrative medicine made the work feel urgent. I was not only learning for myself, but also imagining the world I hoped he would inherit.”

Read more about her journey to Columbia, experiential learning, and what she’s working on now: https://sps.columbia.edu/news/motherhood-health-justice-and-embodied-care-narrative-medicine-alums-experience-columbia-sps

03/16/2026

Join us on Wednesday, April 8 at 6pm EDT for Narrative Medicine Rounds. In April, we are pleased to welcome clinical psychologist Dr. Monica Blum, who will be in conversation with s*xuality and trauma journalist Katie Simon.�

Dr. Blum has spent more than 30 years treating complex trauma in children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. Her groundbreaking book, Inviting the Spirit of Play to Transform Trauma: Healing for All Ages, explores how therapists can use a spirit of playfulness—not play therapy—to support healing. Blending relational, somatic, and developmentally informed approaches, her work demonstrates how playfulness can deepen attunement, strengthen relational safety, and open new pathways for working with trauma.�

Drawing on decades of clinical practice and research, Dr. Blum will discuss how playfulness can help therapists approach difficult trauma symptoms, grief, and change while fostering autonomic regulation, emotional resilience, and connection. Through examples from her work, this conversation will explore how creativity, joy, and shared humanity can become powerful tools for trauma healing across the lifespan.

Details and Registration: https://shorturl.at/ZAntu

03/13/2026

When AI enters the clinic, how do we preserve the human story?

Join the founders and faculty of Columbia Narrative Medicine for Attention to Self and Other: Narrative Medicine in Practice, an immersive three-day workshop exploring how narrative practices shape attention, ethics, and healthcare in a rapidly changing world.

This workshop is for clinicians, writers, scholars, students, and anyone interested in the role stories play in illness, clinical practice, and care. Early Bird registration closes March 27.

📅 April 17–19, 2026
💻 Virtual Workshop
🔗 https://bit.ly/AprilNM

Continuing Education credits and cohort discounts available.

03/11/2026

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get a colonoscopy.

Join the Narrative Medicine community for a screening of ANDRE IS AN IDIOT, a Sundance award-winning documentary about the life of André Riccardi, who sets out to chronicle his final journey after receiving a diagnosis he could have prevented, through comedic vérité storytelling and fantastical stop-motion interludes. Stay for a brief talk back following the film led by Columbia Narrative Medicine faculty.

Thursday, March 12 · 6:45 PM
📍 Film Forum, NYC
209 W Houston St (West of 6th Ave)

🎟 Tickets: https://filmforum.org/events/event/andre-is-an-idiot-march-12

Speakers:
Mary Sormanti, PhD, MSW — Program Director & Lecturer, Narrative Medicine; Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia School of Social Work

Maura Spiegel, PhD — Founder and Co-Director, CUIMC Division of Narrative Medicine