Resource Center

Illness is collaborative. It’s not just a list of symptoms and a diagnosis, but a story. That’s the philosophy behind a new educational initiative at the Community‐University Health Care Center (CUHCC). It’s called narrative medicine. “Stories are basic elements of humanity and an element of healing,” says EmmaLee Pallai, M.F.A., education manager for CUHCC. Pallai is leading CUHCC students and patients in conversations, readings and writing exercises in poetry, fiction and personal essay, all centered on stories of illness. She brings a background in creative writing, which helps students and patients look at health from a more abstract perspective.