Summary: In Western medicine, healing is about addressing problems in the body or mind. In Native American medicine, it is our story that we must learn to heal. This is the underlying premise of what Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona calls “Narrative Medicine.” When recording Dr. Mehl-Madrona’s new audio learning course The Spirit of Healing, Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute began to understand just how powerful this concept can be—and why story is an essential element in a complete understanding of healing. In this excerpt, Dr. Mehl-Madrona talks about the “relational self,” and how the stories we tell to our friends, colleagues, and family influence our ability to heal.
