Compassion & Courage: Conversations in Healthcare

Cindy Smalletz: Using Our Stories to Help Ourselves and Others

• Marcus Engel • Season 1 • Episode 53

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0:00 | 36:50

Cindy Smalletz, occupational therapist and much more, joins Marcus on this episode to define occupational therapy (OT) and how it intersects with Narrative Medicine during a patient’s journey. 

Having both graduated from the Narrative Medicine Master’s program at Columbia University, Marcus and Cindy talk about their experience with Narrative Medicine in healthcare and what they have done since the program.

Marcus and Cindy engage in Cindy’s story of a longtime friend with whom she had lost contact and how, through that friend’s alcoholism, it presented Cindy with the opening to practice compassionate presence in the real world. 

 

Key topics:

  • 00:00 - Introduction
  • 01:59 - Cindy talks about her professional history and career path. Cindy describes OT as half physical health and half mental health.
  • 05:19 - Marcus asks Cindy about how she got her start in healthcare and the work of compassion. Cindy tells an amazing story of walking compassion out in her personal life. 
  • 12:00 - Cindy answers the question, “What is Narrative Medicine?”. The two then talk about their perception of Narrative Medicine and what draws clinicians to the field.
  • 17:56 - Marcus asks where Cindy wants to take the field of Narrative Medicine.
  • 23:40 - Marcus talks about Compassion Science and then asks Cindy about making time for herself.
  • 30:10 - Marcus asks a series of rapid-fire questions to get to know Cindy better as a person. 
  • 34:45 - Final thoughts and goodbyes.

 

More About Cindy Smalletz:

Cindy Smalletz, MS, MA, OTR/L, BCB is Program Director for the Division of Narrative Medicine in the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She joined the Division with and MS in Narrative Medicine and an MA in Instructional Design and Technology, bringing together a career working in learning design in the corporate sector and in education and technology at the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. 

She is the creator, designer, and director of the first online Certificate Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, which she envisioned as an accessible way to connect practitioners around the world to deepen their study and application of narrative medicine. She also lectures on narrative medicine and directs programming at the medical center, including the most recent Virtual Group Sessions, which were created for connection, stress-reduction, and to remedy isolation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, she became a registered occupational therapist and plans to further integrate narrative medicine with clinical care, burnout prevention, and education, with the hopes of changing healthcare through improving advocacy, education, communication, and action.

 

Resources for you:

 

Date: 04/25/2022

Name of show: Compassion & Courage: Conversations in Healthcare

Episode title and number: Episode 53 – Cindy Smalletz: Using Our Stories to Help Ourselves and Others