When Medical Professionals Wound

Whenever I tell someone of the new direction my life is taking–public speaking about PTSD Awareness and Self-Empowerment, teaching Writing as Healing workshops, and teaching reflective writing at a nursing program or medical school–I am often given a story in return. It’s usually after I mention that the field of medicine is undergoing a change [...]

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The Sacred Body

Right before I left for Iowa to attend The Examined Life Conference, I saw my chiropractor. She has helped me for the past year recover from a concussion and whiplash, so I am in deep gratitude to her. But after this particular adjustment, I had a problem. As I lay on my back, she suddenly pulled [...]

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Immersion!

Three days of intense medical humanities immersion at The Examined Life Conference, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa in Iowa City!  What fun! There’s so much to say. Here’s a snapshot. First, the friendships I made are  the most precious take-away. The support that I received was so heartwarming and generous. Another big gift [...]

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“No human being is ever beyond redemption.

The possibility of renewal exists so long as life exists.” I took this quote from the book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté, a doctor who works with drug addicts and alcoholics at the Downtown Eastside Clinic in Vancouver, Canada. He brings humility and compassion to his practice [...]

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Wonderful TED Talk

You are going to love this wonderful TED Talk I discovered when I clicked on a blogger who had “liked” my last post. I found an article about Aimee Mullins who was born without fibular bones in her legs. She has inspired many and I love the way she redefines the term “disability” in her [...]

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Many have PTSD but don’t know it

When we think of PTSD, we often associate it with combat vets returning from war. But I have come to realize that PTSD stems from a wide range of circumstances, conditions, and life experiences. PTSD is what I have from an infant surgery, possibly without anesthesia. PTSD is what people may have when they’ve been [...]

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To Form a Question

Sometimes, in order to ask a question one needs vocabulary–amygdala, neurobiology, the biochemistry of trauma–phrases that position tongue in mouth. Sometimes, exposure to an idea must be repeated before one can edge to the lip of the platform and sail off into the water below. Again and again, we step to the ledge, pause, wait, [...]

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Understanding Infant Surgery: Explaining Ourselves to Ourselves

I’ve been listening to an Audio Course “Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality” in which Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a scientist from Stanford University, discusses some of the latest discoveries in neurobiology. In the lecture about two nuerons (brain cells) communicating, he said that Curare (the drug that was typically used in the [...]

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Our Magnificent Existence

Reading Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, My Stroke of Insight, A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, is teaching me so much. At age thirty-seven, Jill suffered a massive stroke, and she shares her courageous experience of recovery in this wonderful book. As healing is the theme of my blog and as I’ve been healing and working [...]

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Opportunity in Injury

Injured this past spring and engaged in rehabilitation over the summer, I had a chance to heal further from an early trauma. As the Cranio-Sacral Therapist worked on my head, he helped ease some of my temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) pain, which resulted from my infant surgery. I also had the opportunity to work through some [...]

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