The ongoing burden of COVID-19 , and just the January blahs, can add to stress and anxiety for anyone. It’s especially challenging for healthcare workers who knew long before pandemics that patients and parents were extremely stressed out. However, there is a strategy proven to help lower stress for patients, parents, and their practitioners, and it can help anyone else too.

Dr. David Thoele, a pediatric cardiologist at Advocate Children’s Hospital, will share with us how mindfulness and meditation relate to the idea of ‘narrative medicine’ and how it helps ease stress. Dr. Thoele will walk us all through an easy 3-Minute Mental Makeover (3MMM) in this engaging talk. It can be helpful to any level of your mental state -– general malaise and languishing, or serious stress and anxiety.

Please join us for an interactive lunchtime talk where you’ll learn how narrative medicine can lower your stress let you survive & thrive during a pandemic. It will only take an hour, so well worth it!

It’s virtual, so you can bring your own lunch and don’t have to share with anyone! You should have a pen and paper handy for the exercise.

A Zoom link will be emailed to all who register in advance.

We look forward to seeing you!

David G. Thoele, MD is Co-Director of Narrative Medicine and a pediatric cardiologist at Advocate Children’s Hospital. He started the program in narrative medicine at ACH in 2013. He is a writer and speaker who has led writing workshops at The Examined Life Conference, the International Health Humanities meeting, and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). His creative essays are featured in Pulse, Hektoen International, Ars Medica, and Physicians Practice.

He learned the healing power of writing when his daughter got sick and he experienced the medical system from a parent’s perspective. He developed a short writing exercise for doctors to use with their patients. He and his group published studies in The Permanente Journal that showed that the 3MMM reduced stress for patients, families and health practitioners, and led to long-term benefits (also presented at two Johns Hopkins ICU conferences).

Dr. David Thoele YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdKJZ6Vqi_iogTQLVza-c_A

Narrative Medicine Webpage on the Advocate Children’s Hospital website, please feel free to share and use this link when sharing information about our program: https://www.advocatechildrenshospital.com/health-resources/support-services/narrative-medicine