The process I go through to write creatively—essay, memoir—is different than when I’m writing exclusively about healthcare. My client work is collaborative; my essay work is solitary, but in a way, each nurtures the other. The biggest truth I’ve discovered about writing is that there are all kinds of stories inside me waiting to be told. My job: surrender, then be willing to tell them.
My personal narratives have appeared in Newsweek, The Complete Book of Aunts (Twelve), Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Bride’s, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Santa Monica Review and many others, including my blogs at Psychology Today. I created The Writer’s [Inner] Journey where I love interviewing bestselling writers, professional creatives and emerging voices about how they write and why it works.
Formidable Tante Esthère
from The Complete Book of Aunts
I didn’t know the word as a child, but intimidated was what I felt around Aunt Esther. She was a world traveler, and sometimes she’d even come all the way from Manhattan on the diesel train to stay the weekends with us in Yonkers…READ MORE
We Didn’t Need the Past–Or So I Thought
from Newsweek
Last year my husband and I were in St. Petersburg, Russia, meeting the family who had given up our daughters for adoption. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want my daughters to go either…READ MORE
Inside the Ward
from the Journal of American Medical Association
The County of San Diego Inpatient psychiatric unit for teenagers had locks on the doors, and you needed a special key to get in. The yard was wrapped in a fence that soared 25 feet into the air and was topped with metal shards to keep people in, not out…READ MORE
