We will support you to find and share the meaning in the work you do
What is Narrative Medicine?
Narrative medicine helps us understand our patients better.
Narrative medicine is the practice of recognising, absorbing and interpreting stories.
Narrative medicine helps us understand our patients and to be better clinicians. It’s an approach that acknowledges that healthcare isn’t just about diagnosing conditions and prescribing treatments – it’s about understanding the complex human stories that are part of every patient encounter.
How do we find ways to keep caring, keep going, sustain ourselves and care for each other?
Sometimes health work is hard. There are highs and lows. You see triumph and tragedy. Narrative medicine bridges the clinical world with human experience, equipping us with the skills of attentive listening, reflective writing and close reading. We work together to build skills that help us better understand the meaning of our clinical work and care.
The Australian Centre for Narrative Medicine would like to invite you into a space of deep connection and attention to help you attune to the stories within you, and within others.
After attending our courses, practitioners report deeper connections with patients and renewed meaning in their work.
Offerings
We offer courses twice a year through the Australian Centre for Narrative Medicine. We also offer tailored programmes for your organisation or group. We will support you to uncover stories of living, caring, sickness and health. To remember, reflect, laugh and learn together. To re-discover your creative side and re-ignite joy in your work. The stories we find often give us clues about how we want to live.
Reflect, learn and laugh together
Tailored workshops
We will work with you to tailor a narrative medicine workshop or programme for your organisation or group. From a small group, to a whole-of-hospital approach, let us know how we can nourish and inspire you. We also offer a specialised approach for teams under duress.
About Us
Mariam Tokhi General Practitioner
Mariam is recognised as a leader in Narrative Medicine and health advocacy. Together with Fiona, she has pioneered the teaching of Narrative Medicine in Australia.
Mariam, a general practitioner, is interested in how to support clinicians with the unique challenges of healthcare work, and how to build better systems of care.
As a writer, she reflects and advocates about primary care, women’s health and healthcare for vulnerable communities. Her work has featured in The Guardian, The Age, ABC, Psyche, Australian Doctor, New Matilda and others. Mariam loves teaching skills in writing, creativity, advocacy, reflection and self-discovery.
You might like to join us on our Substack, Wild and Precious Lives. It’s a place for the Australian and New Zealand Narrative Medicine community to connect, share stories, and hear our latest news. There’s a narrative medicine text and writing prompt each fortnight.
Fiona Reilly Senior Paediatric Emergency Physician
Fiona is known for her gentle, strong leadership as an experienced emergency physician, creative writer and clinical educator.
She trained in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, and completed a PhD at QUT in Narrative Medicine and Creative Practice. In her Narrative Medicine workshops, she combines her experience teaching clinical skills and creative writing, to create a unique opportunity for participants to discover their own creativity and re-ignite curiosity.
Fiona believes that our modern, bio-scientific medicine could be made even better if we nurtured its human elements of deep listening, close attention and empathy.
You can find out more about Fiona and Mariam here →.
Organisations We’ve Worked With
