At SPS Annie...
- Learned how to be a healing listener
- Honed her writing in service of women’s health
- Integrated doula support with narrative practices
- Found a way to leverage her own health challenges
- Pursued an interdisciplinary path to create a career…
You were a doula before coming to SPS. What attracted you to Narrative Medicine?
I’ve always considered myself a writer. I’ve also been a patient much of my life and involved in health care advocacy for women. Writing is how I came to understand my body and my illnesses. As an undergraduate, I went to NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. I actually created my own major combining the disciplines of medical anthropology, social work, writing, expressive arts and psychology. I was assembling a Narrative Medicine program before I realized it was a field of study. A mentor of mine directed me to Rita Charon’s program at Columbia, and it seemed like a perfect fit.
As your educational life was evolving, so was your professional one. Tell us about it.
I was working as both a doula and a full-time nanny in Brooklyn. It was difficult to balance school and work, but I was able to attend the Narrative Medicine program part-time. In my doula work, I helped women who were terminating pregnancies or had miscarriages. I supported them through those loss experiences with the same compassionate care. I loved it so much. Unlike with a birth client, we don’t meet whom we work with beforehand. We are with them in the waiting room, throughout the procedure and afterwards. These women had a huge range of experiences, and the depth of our connections was profound.
You’ve founded your own wellness organization, and work as a consultant for hospitals and in private practice. How does what you learned at SPS influence you professionally?
Narrative Medicine complements what I’ve studied my whole life: being present, bearing witness, and figuring out how to bring spirituality to the process. With this discipline, there’s a variety of ways to apply your knowledge. You get to be bold in how you envision your path.
