Live on ZOOM, through interviews and audience Q and A, we will explore together writers’ insights into the unique and powerful relationship between storytelling and healing. Through discussions with a wide array of authors from different disciplines and perspectives, we will deepen our understanding of what healing means, how it functions, and how storytelling can play a central role in the healing process.
Join us for the next event in Healing Story Alliance’s series where authors are interviewed about their creative writing processes and the healing power of storytelling. Storytelling, unique among all narrative arts, engages listeners in a profound way, deepening our understanding of what healing means and how it functions.
In this session, Jim Brule will interview noted author and physician, Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, about his many award-winning books exploring indigenous healing ways and the power of storytelling. They will explore the evolution of Dr. Mehl-Madrona’s thoughts on story and healing.
Audience participation is encouraged, with opportunities to ask questions and share observations inspired by Dan’s work and the interview. This event benefits The Healing Storytelling Alliance, dedicated to promoting healing through the art of storytelling.
About the Author
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. He completed his residencies at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as associate clinical professor of family medicine at the University of New England. He has worked with Indigenous communities to explore how to bring their culture and healing traditions into health care. He is interested in what Indigenous cultures and practices can bring to contemporary medicine and psychology.
Lewis is the author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on storytelling and traditional healing as it intersects with modernity. 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 works as a residency faculty and attending physician at Northern Light Acadia Hospital and with the Family Medicine Residency at Eastern Maine Medical Center. He is also Founder, Executive Director, and Board Chair for Coyote Institute.
Lewis has studied traditional healing and healers since his early days and has written about their work and healing process. He aims to bring healing back into mainstream medicine and transform medicine and psychology through Indigenous wisdom coupled with dialogical and narrative traditions. Lewis has written scientific papers in these areas and continues to do research. His current research interests center around resilience in the lifespan.
About the Interviewer
Jim Brulé is a maggid – a transformational storyteller, teacher, and mentor with a very diverse background: he has advanced degrees in clinical psychology and artificial intelligence. His online school – Transformational Storytelling – trains spiritual storytellers from multiple traditions to tell stories that inspire healing and spiritual growth.
He has launched numerous online storytelling series including “Stories for Healing” which saw over 75 stories told by over 50 storytellers worldwide, “Diving Deeply into Stories,” which each month brought stories from different cultures and traditions to an online audience, “Dancing with Dying and Living,” which examines end-of-life issues, “Welcoming the Other,” which uses storytelling to help create a visceral experience of what it is like to be the “other,” and, he led a storytelling and study group for over a year comparing Jewish, Muslim, and Christian scriptures and stories.
As a death doula, he works with families, individuals, and caregivers. He is a member of NEDA – the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance and he is also an interfaith chaplain in hospital, prison, and jail settings.
He has served on the boards of Northeast Storytelling (as President), Artists Standing Strong Together, and (currently) the Healing Story Alliance. He has been an invited workshop leader and storyteller at the International Storytelling Festival in Marrakech, Morocco (2023 and 2025), National Storytelling Network’s annual conference, Northeast Storytelling’s Sharing the Fire, and the Kallah Biennial.