Audio Essay : Listening is Powerful Medicine

Excerpts:

Each story is different. Some are detailed; others are vague. Some have a beginning, middle, and end. Others wander without a clear conclusion. Some are true, others not. Yet all those things do not really matter. What matters to the storyteller is that their story is heard—without interruption, assumption, or judgment.

Listening to someone’s story costs less than expensive diagnostic testing but is key to healing and diagnosis.

I tell them I believe in the power of listening. I tell them I know first-hand that immeasurable healing takes place within me when someone stops, sits down, and listens to my story.

Dr. Alicia Conill is a clinical associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.