Curator of Inside Stories and in-Training Staff Member
Columbia University
Annie Robinson completed a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University in 2014. She previously studied the healing power of stories as an undergraduate at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Annie works as Narrative Coaching Specialist with Eating Disorder Recovery Specialists, helping individuals in the early stages of eating disorder recovery through mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and narrative practices. She is also the Program Officer at Health Story Collaborative, a non-profit that creates forums for individuals to tell their stories of personal health challenges, and curates another oral narratives projects called On the Road to Recovered: Voices from the Eating Disorder Recovery Community.
Annie is a coordinator and full-spectrum doula for The Doula Project in New York City, providing compassionate care for women during experiences of abortion, miscarriage, and fetal loss.
As a yoga teacher, writer, educator, and co-founder of NYC-based wellness community Pause, Breathe, and Connect, Annie shares her passion for integrative approaches to wellbeing. She is dedicated to creating spaces for people to explore the healing potential of interweaving of stories, spirituality, and somatic experience.
Inside Stories
Inside Stories is an oral narratives project which invites medical students to share their experiences in medical school in the form of brief podcasts published and archived on in-Training. The project aims to provide a means of personal healing, self-realization and empowerment through the sharing and receiving of personal stories, as well as to cultivate community among students in the often isolating medical school environment. The title Inside Stories reflects the project's mission to encourage students to go inside themselves and bring forth things that often go unspoken. It also represents the inside look listeners are granted into the sometimes private, challenging and confusing experiences students may have.
Made possible in part by a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and FJC.
How can doctors-in-training act in accordance with their values through the challenging medical school experience? Bit, a first-year medical student with a background in positive psychology and an interest in studying empathy in clinical contexts, describes how she entered medical school with skepticism, yet has found ways to maintain her commitment to compassion.
A leading expert on language and the mind, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker suggests in his book “The Stuff of Thought” that “conceptual metaphors point to an obvious way in which people could learn to reason about new, abstract concepts,” as well as provide the imagery and substrate to help store and share knowledge. The metaphorization of illness allows us to describe it in easily-digestible forms which have relevance and relation to our everyday speech. The …
How can doctors-in-training help each other remember what an honor it is to be a doctor? Joseph, a fourth-year medical student at Rush Medical College who hopes to enter a pediatric residency with a public policy focus and to pursue a hematology-oncology fellowship, shares his reflections after attending this year’s Gold Humanism Honor Society Biennial National Conference in Atlanta. He discusses changes that can be made to bring humanism to the fore in medical practice, and offers advice for others wishing to do the same.
Ms. Miller is a fading star. At first glance, I begin painting an elaborate picture in my head of Ms. Miller in her brilliant shining glory. Young. Stubborn. Beautiful. Loved. I have no way of knowing if these things are true, but in my head I must believe them because it’s just way too sad to accept the truth. Old. Inert. Defeated. Wrinkled. Alone. Ms. Miller was brought to the ER from her nursing home …
How can doctors-in-training actually practice medicine “narratively”? Daniel, a fourth-year medical student applying in pediatrics and a graduate of Columbia University’s Master of Science Program in Narrative Medicine, grapples with how to humanize the practice of medicine, especially while up against the limitations of effecting change as a medical student. He concludes with a poignant personal story about an unexpected encounter with a former patient on the streets of New York City.
Standing at the foot of her hospital bed, it was clear to me — as it was to the attending physician — that my grandmother was suffering from a disease: an obvious structural disorder identified by scientific medicine as negatively impacting her health. Hilar mass, cavitation, hypercalcemia. Keratin pearls, intercellular bridges. Hemoptysis, dyspnea, edema. It was also apparent to this eight year-old, however, that she was burdened by an illness, or an impaired sense of well-being. …
How can doctors-in-training honor the voices of their patients, especially children’s voices? Trisha, a first-year medical student who aspires to become a pediatric oncologist, discusses her mission to give children with cancer the opportunity to be heard. She describes a project she developed inviting children to tell the stories of their illness, which she compiled into her book, “Chronicling Childhood Cancer: A Collection of Personal Stories by Children and Teens with Cancer,” that was published this month in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
How can doctors-in-training allow patients to directly contribute to their learning process? Laura, a second-year medical student pursuing dual medical and social science degrees, describes how, by asking her patients to walk her through their embodied experiences, she gains knowledge she cannot learn from textbooks. She also shares the joy she feels in serving not only as a diagnostician, but also as a guide through major life transitions.
How can doctors-in-training allow their personal experiences with the health care system shape their own practice? Kalla, a second-year medical student in New York, describes how witnessing her father benefit from the addition of meditation and acupuncture to his cancer treatment inspired her to incorporate an integrative approach to her own self-care and future practice.
[ca_audio url=” http://in-training.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/03-Wake-Up-Everybody-feat.-Common-Melanie-Fiona.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player” autoplay=”false”] Two interesting opinion pieces published a few months ago inspired me write this column: one from Tal Fortgang, a Princeton freshman defending his “white man privilege,” and another from Max Ritvo explaining what exactly that white man’s privilege is. To summarize their points, the former author laments that his academic success is shadowed by society attributing his successes to being genetically a white man. As a result, society believes …
Mr. Lacey was irate, to say the least, as he rattled off a list of his symptoms. Constant pain. Nausea. Dizziness. Numbness. Weakness. Fatigue bordering on exhaustion. He said he had been spending most of the day in bed and had become dependent on his wife and children for basic daily tasks. “I’m serious, Doc. I’ve just about had enough of this. I’ve been looking into Hemlock Societies.” The interview screeched to a halt, and …
In 1984, in the midst of fleeing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a young girl agreed to pose for a photo. In her short life, she had survived the carpet bombings that claimed the lives of her parents, trekked through mountains to escape her war-torn home, and struggled to adjust to life amongst a sea of other refugees — but she had never been photographed. Restricted by her religion from smiling at a male photographer, …
Editor Emeritus: Former Medical Student Editor (2014-2015)
Weill Cornell Medical College
Sanjay received a undergraduate degree from Amherst College, where he studied Neuroscience and Religion. He is currently a class of 2015 medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College.
