Recent Events & Media
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On September 24th, 2024, Annie Brewster served as the guest facilitator for a book discussion with Jennifer Crystal, author and HSC story editor and Creative Meetup writing facilitator, about her new memoir, One Tick Stopped the Clock. Jennifer was bitten by a tick at age 19 but wasn't diagnosed with Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses until her late twenties. She experienced a dramatic fall from the heights of post-college success to the depths of despair. Through her narrative of resilience and perseverance, Jennifer demonstrates what it means to refocus broken dreams and create a new normal.
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In September 2024, HSC partnered with artist and writer, Sara Nesson, to bring you her performance of Body of Water. This chronology of love, loss, and reconciliation follows Sara’s journey as a landlocked distance swimmer struggling to find the way home. Her monologue weaves lyric storytelling, myth, and sacred text as Sara shares how her life was altered by myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
Learn more about Sara and future performances by visiting her website.
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Starting in January 2024, Health Story Collaborative had the privilege of working with The Boston Home, a long-term care community for adults with advanced Multiple Sclerosis and other progressive neurological disorders, to facilitate multiple Healing Story Sessions for their community. Several brave residents have taken on the challenge of narrating and sharing their stories with their fellow residents, caregivers and staff at The Boston Home. We are honored that they have agreed to share their written stories for others to engage with and find connection and compassion.
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On May 28th, 2024, students from the Harvard Medical School advanced elective, "Harnessing the Healing Power of Stories: Narrative Theory and Narrative Practice," taught by Dr. Annie Brewster and Dr. Jonathan Adler, hosted an evening of transformative story sharing. Watch a recording of this event to hear about the lived experiences of three individuals navigating health, wellness and life. Their stories transcend illness as a celebration of hope, human resiliency, and dignity.
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On April 13th, 2024, Health Story Collaborative had the honor of facilitating a Healing Story Session at SCIboston's annual fundraising gala, with two amazing members of their community, Dianne Viktus and Matthew Klos. Listen to their stories as they share the trauma, pain and challenges they have faced on their journey with a spinal cord injury, and also the hope and healing that carries them forward.
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On March 3rd, 2024, we held our second annual event, "Reclaiming Our Mental Health Stories", during which we shed light on the experiences of individuals navigating mental health challenges in today's world. Listen to our conversation with Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us, during which we explore the relationship between identity and illness, the impact of labels and much more. Experience the power of storytelling as you listen to Marina, Nathalie and John, who shed light on the experiences of individuals navigating anxiety, depression, addiction and disordered eating.
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HSC's Jonathan Adler was quoted in the New York Times for his expert recommendation on memoirs that focus on mental health and psychology. He recommended "An Unquiet Mind" by Kay Redfield Jamison and "The Noonday Demon" by Andrew Solomon, among others, including Annie Brewster's own "The Healing Power of Storytelling"
"The way the narrator makes meaning offers us an invitation to think about the meaning that we’ve made in our lives. It’s an invitation to realize that you are interpreting your story and that you have choices about how you want to do that," Jonathan said.
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HSC’s Jonathan Adler and Annie Brewster were featured in an article for Psyche, a digital magazine by Aeon that illuminates the human condition through psychology, philosophy and the arts.
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In December 2023 we partnered with the Social health Network to bring you a panel discussion about navigating the holidays, which can be an especially challenging time for those who live with chronic or terminal illnesses. How can we gracefully navigate the holiday season while being kind and considerate toward our bodies, hearts, and minds? Additionally, how can we provide the best support to those in our lives most impacted by these circumstances? Listen to three panelists as they share their stories of struggle and resilience during the winter and holiday seasons.
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We all will face mental health challenges in our lifetimes, to varying degrees, directly and indirectly, but with certainty. The Unfixed Mind chronicles the real-life stories of six individuals living with mental health conditions, capturing the humanity and complexity of navigating their diagnoses in today’s world.
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is rising. More than 3 million Americans struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome, according to the CDC. The HSC series on chronic illness, "Making the Invisible Visible,” has helped people dig deep to shape very personal stories and share truths about illness through audio, video, and art.
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We all tell stories about ourselves, often without realizing we’re doing so. How we frame those stories can profoundly shape our lives. In the kickoff episode to our monthlong series on healing, psychologist Jonathan Adler shares how to tell our stories in ways that enhance our wellbeing.
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On February 4th 2023, we held our inaugural annual event, “Making the Invisible Visible”, during which we shed light on the experiences of individuals navigating “invisible” chronic illnesses which are poorly understood, challenging to diagnose, and often dismissed by the healthcare establishment. Listen to our conversation with Meghan O’Rourke, author of The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, during which we discussed the concepts of narrative identity and how Meghan's own experience sharing her story has changed how she experiences her illness today. Experience the power of storytelling as you listen to Katy Morly and Lili Fox-Lim, two courageous storytellers, who shared the challenges and insights they’ve encountered on their journeys through illness and healing.
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Join Harvard Prescriptions for a discussion with Harvard Medical School Professor and founder of the Health Story Collaborative, Dr. Annie Brewster. Explore the role of storytelling in medical treatment and how such practices center patient perspectives in clinical settings. Dr. Brewster shares how her perspective as both a physician and patient influences her work in narrative medicine.
Read more
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Cal has spent his life writing stories and telling them on stage. Big Questions started after he told stories for three straight hours on Tim Ferriss’s podcast. But Cal finds a new power in storytelling through his discussion with Annie Brewster. She shares her own story of healing after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis roughly twenty years ago and the work she has done at Health Story Collaborative helping others understand their health problems through storytelling. This conversation gives Cal the seed of an idea . . . and may help you, too. Listen to the podcast episode here.
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Watch this installment of the Virtual Radcliffe Book Talks with Meghan O’Rourke RI ’15, author of The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness and Jonathan Adler, Health Story Collaborative’s Chief Academic Officer.
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Have you ever devoured a book in a day? Well that’s exactly what I did with The Healing Power of Storytelling.
In this episode we explore the grief involved in a diagnosis, the lessons she learned about the healing power of narratives, the elements of storytelling that can help bring improved outcomes to our physical, psychological and emotional well-being and so much more.
All of us will experience illness, trauma, and loss in our lives. How do we move forward and optimize well-being after such life-changing events occur? Listen to the podcast here.
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This webinar focused on how engaging with your own unique healing story can help you process what comes next--come to terms with an illness, create new ways to thrive, and even reclaim your personal power amid fear, change, and uncertainty. Annie Brewster and Jonathan Adler discuss the research supporting the health benefits of storytelling, and how to apply these concepts to your own life.
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Annie Brewster talks with Matthew Zachary on Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary. Listen to the podcast here.
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WBUR Host Robin Young talks to Annie Brewster about "The Healing Power of Stoy about "The Healing Power of Stoytelling," Brewster's own journey, and the Health Story Collaborative she created.
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If you would like to see a recording of Annie Brewster and Rachel Zimmerman discussing their recent book, register on Crowdcast through the Porter Square Books website. Registration is free and easy and will give you access to the event recording.
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In this podcast Dr. Annie Brewster shares her personal health journey as well as the importance of crafting your own personal narrative and integrating it into your evolving identity.
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When Harvard-trained physician Dr. Annie Brewster was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001, she realized firsthand that the medical system was failing her in one critical way: she didn’t feel seen or heard. Her doctors weren’t listening. This experience launched her onto a path to discover how exploring and sharing her healing journey, and becoming the author of her own story, taught her to integrate her traumatic health event into her new and evolving identity. Annie now uses applied storytelling techniques to help others strengthen connections and cultivate resilience to move forward amid uncertainty and fear.
In this conversation we discuss:
How we can heal by taking charge of our stories;
How is storytelling different from delusion or fooling ourselves;
The process of exploring and crafting our story and the ways it cultivates deeper connections, compassion and empathy for others;
Creating space to listen to other people’s stories;
A process for crafting stories that creates healing.
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Public Radio Tulsa: The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss
Our guest is Dr. Annie Brewster, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Brewster started recording patient narratives in 2010 and founded Health Story Collaborative in 2013. These activities -- both rooted in the idea that we, as patients as well as doctors, can write down our own stories of illness, diagnosis, pain, and healing in order to start processing (and even start confronting) what might come next in our lives -- have led her to co-write an important new book. That book is "The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss." As was noted by Dr. Danielle Ofri (author of "What Doctors Feel"): "Brewster's new book is revelatory. With the authority that comes from being a patient and a doctor simultaneously, Brewster is able to excavate the deep power of storytelling. The stories and journeys she shares -- her own and others' -- are riveting."