About the Narrative Medicine Program at the
Keck School of Medicine of USC
The USC Narrative Medicine program partners with local organizations to promote narrative medicine practices and methods as a means to improve the wellbeing of individuals and communities and to revitalize health care. We offer narrative medicine workshops tailored to the organization’s goals and the needs of staff, clients, or patients, including topics such as burnout, team-building, suffering and trauma, navigating uncertainty in illness, and more.
Workshop Description
The narrative medicine workshop provides participants the opportunity to discover the power of telling and listening to stories. Through the workshop, participants develop the skills that allow them to better recognize, absorb, interpret, and act upon the words of others as they navigate the experience of illness or participate in the work of caring for those who are sick.
- 60 or 90-minute session consisting of close reading and discussion of a text
- Prompted writing
- No expertise or prior experience is required.
Why Narrative Medicine?
Narrative medicine’s practice of listening to others’ stories and telling our own:
- Enables us to recognize our shared humanity
- Fosters connection and community
- Cultivates self-expression, self-reflection, and narrative humility
- Encourages us to act and advocate for others
Partnerships
Special Service for Groups, Inc. – better known as SSG – is a non-profit health and human service organization dedicated to building and sustaining community-based programs that address the needs of vulnerable communities.
We believe that stronger communities create healthier and more resilient children. As a part of our efforts to create hope and build healthier futures, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is broadening the scope of our commitment to the communities around us.
Cancer Support Community of Greater Ann Arbor is a local nonprofit affiliate of The International Cancer Support Community (CSC), opening our doors in 2007. The Cancer Support Community is the largest and most comprehensive program in the country devoted solely to providing emotional support and education to people with cancer, their caregivers and children – all free of charge.
Good health does not start and end at the doctor’s office. Access to convenient, culturally-sensitive care is essential, but it takes so much more to help our communities grow healthy – including equitable access to schools, good jobs, healthy foods, essential services, and elected officials who reflect and respect the people they serve.
We have facilitated Narrative Medicine Workshops for:
- CHLA Hematology-Oncology Fellows
- Keck Neurology Department
- Latino Medical Student Association
- UC Davis Postbac Program
- USC Mann School of Pharmacy
- USC Physician Assistant Program
- USC Student Health Care for the Caregiver (C4C)Program
- Venice Family Clinic
- Young Patients’ Autoimmune Research & Empowerment Alliance
In lieu of fees for service, the USC Narrative Medicine program requests honoraria for hosting workshops. This helps support the work of our facilitators and our community engagement efforts. If your organization has limited resources, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Contact us
To learn more about the Narrative Medicine program and/or to partner with us to host a workshop with your organization, contact our Director of Community Engagement, Dr. Kairos Llobrera, at uscnarrativemedicine@usc.edu.
Read more about our Community Engagement initiative here.