Empathy is a lot more nuanced and complex than people sometimes assume. There are many theories about what empathy is, what it looks like and how to foster it. Brené Brown’s work on empathy, including the The Power of Empathy video and her TED talk, has brought this topic to a larger audience, and encourages…

In 1667, when philosopher Baruch Spinoza proclaimed “no one has yet determined what the body can do,” he was, perhaps, heralding recent attention to the body in social science, education and therapy practices. The critical issue for these fields is the presence and role of the physical body in disciplines that have traditionally privileged the…

One of my virtual mentors in the field of narrative medicine is Sayantani DasGupta. I’ve never met her, but her work has shaped my thinking about the critical role of narrative in healthcare. DasGupta is interested in the role of stories in healthcare and spends much of her time as a professor of medical humanities…