Narrative Medicine

Narrative Medicine recognises that story lies at the heart of clinical practice: how we understand illness, listen, interpret experience, and make meaning together.

Story shapes not only how we understand illness and care, but also how we see ourselves, our colleagues, and the work of medicine.

These workshops invite clinicians to slow down and attend carefully to their own experience of practice, using writing as a way of reflection. Through reading, writing, conversation, and deep listening, participants explore aspects of clinical life that are often present yet rarely receive sustained attention.

Writing is often ahead of comprehension:

it becomes a way of noticing,

making sense of experience, and sometimes

discovering what we did not yet know we knew.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.

- Rumi

Each session begins with a shared text - perhaps a poem, a piece of prose, a work of art, or a clinical narrative - which serves as a starting point for discussion.

Participants then write in response to a prompt, with opportunities to share their writing in small groups, with attention to listening and strengths-based feedback. Sharing is always an invitation rather than an expectation. No previous writing experience is required. The emphasis is not on literary skill, but on curiosity, reflection, and conversation.

"Listen to listen, not preparatorily to preparing a reply."

- Neurology Registrar, MBSR program participant

Foundations

The following short readings introduce some of the principles and practices that underpin these workshops. They are not prerequisites, but many participants find them a helpful introduction before attending for the first time.

Current workshops

Remembering intention. Noticing beauty.

Our current workshop series explores the lived experience of clinical practice through reading, writing, conversation, and deep listening.

Workshop flyer

Register your interest