This is one of the most memorable and productive reads I have had the pleasure of consuming over the last 12 months. The author is a physician who is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and shares her story, then realizes how encouraging others to share their story, allows them to take ownership and agency over their medical issues and past history. It allows them to look beyond their "diagnoses" and "diseases", rather looking at their humanity.

My favorite discussion and comparison which I will use in my own practice is the distinction between "healing" and "cure". Though storytelling does not cure of disease (it is still there...), it allows for "healing", acceptance of the disease, ability to look beyond it and look at the humanity perspective and altruistic components helping others.

For all healthcare practitioners out there, I highly recommend this read. It is worth your time. I will be completing a more in-depth review of this book in a peer-reviewed family medicine journal within the next several months. READ THIS PLEASE!

This is a powerful, important, and relevant book for anyone who’s been through anything difficult, to help them tell their story, and WHY they need to tell their story. The chapters include a good mix of the author’s own story, current research, examples, and suggestions for our personal use. At the end of each chapter there is a “takeaways” section with prompts and concrete suggestions to put into one’s personal practice the ideas set forth in each chapter.

The topics include Practical approaches to telling your story, finding meaning in death, Storytelling for social change, the power of story to change our relationships… And more!

If your life has been, or is being, shaped by something traumatic, tragic, or just plain difficult, I highly recommend this book. Take your time with it, allow its wisdom to transform your journey.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I’m in two minds about this book. I really enjoyed the emphasis on using creative outlets to deal with trauma and illness. But I did find it difficult to follow. There was some great practical information and I also loved learning about how it can help you cope. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for a chance to read and review this book.

Under ordinary circumstances, it is only minutes after finishing a book that I find myself sitting at my desk eagerly typing away my review.

There are, however, those times when a book demands more reflection and consideration. There are those times when I need to allow an author's words to wash over me as I immerse myself in their words, their ideas, and the experience I've had with their book.

Annie Brewster's "The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss" is such a book.

Brewster, a Harvard-trained physician who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001, has crafted with "The Healing Power of Storytelling" an incredibly intelligent yet deeply personal framework for moving forward through illness, trauma, and loss through the power of words and the power of storytelling.

As a paraplegic and double amputee with spina bifida who has lived 50+ years past my life expectancy, I found myself enthralled by "The Healing Power of Storytelling." This is partly because of how the book affirmed the role creativity has played in my own journey and partly because Brewster put words to things that have danced around in my heart and in my mind for years.

It was only a couple years ago that I found myself on a downward spiral, a 10-day hospitalization after nearly 30 years without having been inpatient left me demoralized and an above-knee amputee after 20+ years as a double below-knee amputee. As I found myself, and still find myself, re-learning life and adapting in new ways I also faced having to end an important event I'd led for 30 years because the physical demand had become too much.

In essence, I felt like I was losing my story.

In most ways, I've bounced back yet internally there's been an absence of peace and more than a little chaos. The experience of reading "The Healing Power of Storytelling" was like the experience of light bulb after light bulb popping on as if I was amidst paparazzi and suddenly I realized my story had merely changed and a new chapter was waiting to be written.

Brewster, writing with journalist Rachel Zimmerman, is refreshingly matter-of-fact in discussing her medical profession and its frequent failing of patients. As Brewster notes, a doctor can serve up a life-changing diagnosis but is often ill-equipped, or just plain unwilling, to help you deal with the internal fallout that unfolds. Brewster acknowledges that while she's long embraced storytelling even she'd fallen into this cycle, a cycle that seems practically built into the institution of medicine.

Utilizing stories from patients, exercises, writing prompts, and reflections, Brewster helps each of us develop a transformative process of writing and storytelling that helps the processing of all the emotions that come with a life-changing diagnosis, helps one transform from being the "hero" of one's story to the actual author (There's a huge difference!), helps one develop the practice of creating one's own story in whatever medium feels right, helps the integrating process for a life-changing diagnosis into one's personal identity, guides the utilization of storytelling techniques into strengthening relationships with loved ones, friends, peers, and even medical professionals, and empowers one to be more resilient and move forward through the fears and anxiety.

"The Healing Power of Storytelling" is a unique combination of wonderfully researched and emotionally resonant. I cried, perhaps more than I'd like to admit, but I also found myself taking notes and reading further time and time again. It's a relatively short book at just over 200 pages, yet it's a book that is best experienced and interacted with throughout the reading process.

I gained appreciation for my own primary care physician, a woman who is relentless in her pursuit of my wellness yet also picked up the phone and called me when she heard that my mother had passed away to see if I was alright.

Who does that?

"The Healing Power of Storytelling" doesn't offer miracles. It offers tools for living a more full and satisfying life and it offers tools for claiming what I'd call the holiness of my body even when it feels like anything but a temple. Brewster feels like a companion on the journey and I found myself putting together my own narrative puzzle pieces and having more than a few "Aha!" moments throughout my time with the book.

There's simply no doubt this is a book I will revisit time and again.

As someone who experienced a lot of early life trauma, much of my life has been dedicated to holding space for others to tell their stories and, indeed, moving forward and modeling living into one's own story. Yet, after reading "The Healing Power of Storytelling" I began to realize that I still, at least at times, resist storytelling when it comes to my own body. I began to understand why and, perhaps more importantly, I began to find ways that I could reverse this cycle and reclaim my personal narrative in its entirety.

"The Healing Power of Storytelling" is a valuable book for anyone who has experienced illness, trauma, or loss and especially those who've struggled with navigating through the maze of fear, anxiety, doubt, and that icky feeling of being a diagnosis.

Incredibly moving and thought-provoking, "The Healing Power of Storytelling" is transformative literature at its finest.