“Narrative Medicine in the Mountains” presents weekend and (future) week-long experiences devoted to grounding Narrative Medicine in its roots in Storytelling. Led by globally renowned Storyteller Connie Regan-Blake and Professor of Narrative Medicine Laura Hope-Gill in breathtaking Black Mountain, Western North Carolina, these experiences provide refreshment and renewal in the ancient Appalachian Mountains where Storytelling is as necessary as cornbread in the bellies, hearts and lives of humans.
What to Expect
Each retreat features appreciation-based classes and workshops and opportunities to develop and share stories. There will also be delicious community meals, traditional Folk Music and Storytelling performances, excursions to waterfalls and low-impact wanders in the mountains, and much-needed time to reflect, rest, and reconnect to real life and real relationship in a quiet space nestled in the Appalachian woods.
Why You Should Come
“Doctor” means “teacher.” True medicine and healing are about much more than the diagnosis and the prescriptions and procedures that follow. It is the support of our development as we move through our lives discovering at every turn that there is so much more to being human than merely having a body. As the medical research demonstrates, our stories are our true vital signs. Let’s discover this vitality together and truly transform medicine for a healthier, more-connected world.
Teachers
With 55 years’ experience in teaching and telling Traditional and True-Life stories around the world, Master Storyteller, Connie Regan-Blake leads participants through clear and supportive exercises and classes that will set them on their own journey into the mysterious realms of stories.
With 35 years’ experience in teaching Creative Writing and Narrative Medicine, award-winning poet and memoirist, Laura Hope-Gill creates learning environments and experiences that undo the damage of overly critical practices that silence our creativity. She restores the guidance, excitement, and wonder we naturally find in our writing when nobody’s telling us we’re doing it wrong.
Additional Faculty
Doctors and surgeons of the Lenoir-Rhyne University Narrative Medicine Program will also guide and support colleagues in smaller orientation groups to assist in the migration from clinical to creative.
Narrative Medicine in the Mountains 