In this episode I speak with author and physician Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona about how he brings storytelling and narrative into his healing processes. A teacher in many respects, Lewis believes that telling a story (or “sharing a case-study” in doctor talk), is the most effective way to teach. 

This conversation is helpful in shifting the way you look at your life and the stories you tell yourself that not only affect your neurological and mental health, but your physical health as well. What are the biological consequences of the stories that we tell ourselves? Can we rewrite our stories to better our lives? 

“We are the swarm of stories that surround our physical body.” - Lewis Mehl-Madrona 

Topics we cover include:
Indiginous knowledge
Narrative medicine
The Power of Talking Circles
Imagery & Narrative in Healing
Issues of Psychology during Birthing
Epigenetics vs. genetics in disease

About our guest:
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. He has been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as associate professor of family medicine at the University of New England. He is the author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native culture has to offer the modern world. He has also written Narrative Medicine, Healing the Mind through the Power of Story: the Promise of Narrative Psychiatry, and, his most recent book with Barbara Mainguy, Remapping Your Mind: the Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story. 

Lewis currently teaches with the family medicine residency at Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) in Bangor, where he does inpatient medicine, outpatient precepting, and obstetrics. He works in consultation-liaison psychiatry at EMMC and also at Acadia Hospital. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Coyote Institute for Studies of Change and Transformation. Lewis has been studying traditional healing and healers since his early days and has written about their work and the process of healing. His goal is to bring the wisdom of indigenous peoples about healing back into mainstream medicine and to transform medicine and psychology through this wisdom coupled with more European derived narrative traditions. 

Read more about Lewis Mehl-Madrona on his website. 

Episode Resources:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coyotehealing/
The Coyote Trilogy: Coyote Wisdom, Coyote Healing, Coyote Medicine by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Narrative Medicine: The Use of History & Story in the Healing Process by Lewis Mehl-Madrona

Episode Credits:
Produced by Aleksa Mara
Edited by Veronica Gruba
Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD