For some of us, the crackle of leaves underfoot and the first big storm of winter signal coziness. If you live where the days get shorter and the nights get longer, you may love bundling up, cooking favorite foods, and enjoying the great indoors. Or you may not. Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is a […]

Co-authored by Genevieve Walker, PhD, a medical writer with more than 15 years of medical writing experience and 25 years of healthcare experience. Accepting the challenges, creating wellness Perimenopause. The life stage leading up to and around menopause, the one you may not have heard of until you reached it, can bring physical and emotional […]

As horrific as the COVID-19 pandemic has been, it is bringing to bear what leaders and practitioners in health care already knew: our system has a glaring weakness in primary care delivery. A new in-depth report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) provides a crucial roadmap to how we can learn […]

For millennia, the therapeutic encounter has remained largely the same: a person who had been functioning normally and without giving a thought to their health now notices that something is wrong—they don’t feel well. They seek someone to help. In various cultures and eras, this “practitioner” may have been called a shaman, a barber, a […]

Burnout. More and more, I am seeing colleagues, friends, and my patients fraying at the edges. Some are on the edge of burnout and some are already there. More than a year after COVID-19 first entered our vocabulary, we are still seeing its effects in ways we might not have predicted. Women are leaving the […]

You are a social being. Your relationships with others and your role within your community provide a sense of belonging, care, and support. And right now, when most of us are struggling to remain as social as we once were, often fighting to stave off loneliness, we need to make a real effort to connect […]

It has been scientifically proven that our physical and emotional presence influences the healing of other human beings—it’s a phenomenon that is as fascinating as it is beautiful. The following excerpt is from my book, How Healing Works, and describes the role a “healing presence” can play in the recovery, or maintenance, of one’s health. […]

As we continue discussing loneliness and isolation in these times of COVID-19, it is crucial to note how remaining in touch with family and friends can be essential to your health. And, while it is vitally important to keep your circles small and adhere to basic social distancing guidelines, the impact of being around loved […]

As we’ve seen in our recent COVID-19 survey, and in our latest collection of blog posts, isolation and loneliness can have a real, negative effect on our health—impacting our body, minds, and even our spirits.  The following excerpt is from my book, How Healing Works, and describes the science of love and loss, and is […]

Social distancing is essential in helping flatten the COVID-19 curve but it’s also having a devastating effect on our patients’ physical, mental and spiritual health. Nearly half of American adults are feeling socially isolated from family and friends and are struggling to maintain their health, according to the Social Distancing Survey by Harris Poll. Social […]