Healing Story Alliance Concerts & Workshops

HSA offers workshops, concerts, seminars, and panel discussions that explore the applied uses of storytelling in all forms of healing.

When Storytellers Write about Healing
An Interview with Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD by Jim Brulé
Sunday October 19.2025
LIVE on ZOOM!
7:00pm-8:30 pm EST
Admission $16.50
For Tickets: https://www.simpletix.com/e/when-storytellers-write-about-healing-an-i-tickets-230464

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 Dr. Mehl-Madrona’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.

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PAST EVENTS

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A one-man show written, directed, and performed by The Artist Anubis. This production takes audiences inside today’s contemporary Black man’s heart, mind, and fears. Fusing theater and improv into his technique, The Artist Anubis grapples with defining himself as a son, lover, and father—all while in the presence of his therapist. At times, his eloquence feels as if the artist is grasping for sanity and, at other times, his humanity. His introspection reveals the shadows and all that is light as he fights his way back to his mental wellness.

Anger is an uncomfortable, often taboo, sometimes dangerous, and very necessary emotion. It informs us when our personal needs are not being met, when there is injustice, and when action is required. Anger often covers painful emotions, such as grief, powerlessness, shame, and fear. Understanding how our anger is trying to help us is a crucial step in the forgiveness/healing process. By listening to our anger’s stories with compassion and curiosity, we connect to what is important to us, and live more authentically. 

Curl into winter’s cave this Samhain, as the myth of Persephone’s descent guides you into the mysteries of the underworld, where darkness is both a sanctuary and an initiation. The underworld asks for your surrender to its embrace, to seek and find a core of stillness, trust, and love. This sacred story is a potent journey of claiming your innate authority, aligning yourself with your inner core of wise knowing and creative vision. 

The goal of this workshop is to help build skills to manage controversial conversations in the family and beyond. Whether it be the conflict in Gaza or Ukraine, the climate crisis, border issues, or our upcoming political election, as people in our country take sides over controversial national and international issues, it can feel like the divide between us only deepens. Family relationships are becoming casualties of our toxic polarized environment. Family members are having nasty political arguments, avoiding each other, or even cutting off lifetime relationships. If you want to preserve important family bonds while still being true to your values and political beliefs, this workshop is for you! 

The Healing Story Alliance (HSA) presents a concert of healing stories told by women members of the HSA Advisory Committee. Enjoy a varied evening of personal narratives and folktales that will delight you at one moment and inspire you the next. Please join us for this exciting fundraising event and help support our programming.

You have something to say in a story, but how do you say it without sounding too pushy or opinionated? In this hands-on workshop, Sue O’Halloran will demonstrate and instruct how she approaches themes of race equity, diversity and inclusion into stories that respect, enlighten, and emotionally move your audience members to take action. You’ll leave with a better understanding of your motives for telling socially relevant stories and be given practical ways to overcome the fears all of us have about taking stands. Join us whether you are a veteran activist or you are still discovering what causes call to you. 

Healing Story Alliance is delighted to present a virtual concert, Social Action Stories curated by Dr. Kevin Cordi. Listening to and telling social action stories renders people and their stories visible. This program, which grew out of the recently released book, Social Action Stories, (Ed. Cordi, Milks, and Van Tessell, 2023) captures the voices of five storytellers, activists, educational reformers, therapists, and regular folks who advocate for change through deep listening and deliberate action. These stories are intended to move your work as a storyteller towards an equitable world.

Social Action Stories (Ed. Cordi, Milks, and Van Tessell) Marion, MI: Parkhurst Brothers Publisher, 2023) PO Box 356 Marion, MI 49665 Phone 800-621-2736. http://www.parkhurstbrothers.com/ $19.95 paperback (See website for other options) Free shipping for attenders of the program. (Code will be given out during program). You must call to order to receive the discount.

Join us for an HSA special event fundraiser featuring Lani Peterson Psy.D. who will guide us on a remarkable Heroine’s Journey. Through telling our stories and listening to the stories of others who walk a similar path, we will explore within ourselves and between each other, the underlying knowledge, skills, and support we need to help us live our lives more fully.

Throughout our life’s journey we face challenges that reveal to us who we are in our depths, who walks with us, what we know and what we still need to learn. Whether we are looking at the arc of a day or the journey of a lifetime, we find similar patterns of being pulled into experiences that we sometimes embrace, and many times just endure. As women, what aspects of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey are unique to us, and how might we benefit from sharing our stories of challenge and triumph with our sisters?

In this special event fundraiser for Healing Story Alliance join us to explore the art of Kintsugi with Kristin Pedemonti! Through guided reflections and hands-on learning, attendees will experience the physical art and profound metaphors of Kintsugi in a step-by-step process. Engaging in this uplifting endeavor, imagine how you will put the pieces back together! No experience necessary.

WHAT IS KINTSUGI? Kintsugi (golden joinery) is an ancient Japanese art of mending broken pottery with lacquer and precious metals highlighting the cracks rather than hiding them. Kintsugi honors the journey of the vessel and believes the mended piece is stronger and more valuable. Kintsugi is a powerful metaphor and art form used to explore layers of meaning- including challenges, changes, and new chapters in our lived experiences. This workshop offers an invitation to look at the pieces in new ways as we put them back together. 

Welcome one and all! Healing Story Alliance is delighted to present a free storytelling concert designed by master storyteller Laura Simms to celebrate HSA’s rejuvenation in the New Year. The event will be a tapestry of personal stories and fragments of myths uncovering the heart of joy in everyday experience. These stories within stories are woven into a remarkable Kurdish Jewish fairy tale called “What a Beautiful Road.”

Lewis works with aboriginal communities to develop uniquely aboriginal styles of healing and health care, particularly drawn from the Lakota and Cherokee traditions. As both a psychiatrist and psychologist, Lewis has been studying traditional healing and healers since his early days and has written extensively about their work and the process of healing.  Lewis 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.  

Lewis has developed this special keynote and workshop for the Healing Story Alliance based on his recent book written with Barbara Mainguy, Remapping Your Mind: the Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story. 

CONCERTS

DEEPER THAN THE SKIN
Reggie Harris & Greg Greenway
Nov 20, 2022
On Zoom! 7:00 PM-8:30 PM
Tickets $25

DEEPER THAN THE SKIN is a musical presentation on race. It is an experience of singing and listening… of experiencing a connection so deep that it makes you laugh, smile, cry and reconsider what you know about our history. It’s an invitation to open your heart and mind to a story of shared humanity that can resonate with your own.
Two friends… one Black, one White… one from the North… one from the South! Musicians, storytellers, students of history and world travelers . . . born 3 day apart! Two separate narratives forged into one powerful friendship aimed at finding common ground and helping others to do the
same.

Past HSA Workshop Events

KIND STORIES WORKSHOP- June 6, 2021
After presenting several Kind Stories in Concert programs during the winter and spring of 2021, HSA offered story listeners an opportunity to work with facilitators Elisa Pearmain and Lani Peterson to explore the personal and family stories of kindness in their lives.  Take-aways included several story seeds, a more developed story shared, inspiration, and sense of our shared community.