Narrative in Healthcare: A Powerful Communication Tool for Behavior Change
We’ve all heard someone tell a great story, and sometimes, one so impactful that we remember it accurately and repeat it to others (occasionally even giving the original storyteller credit.) Over time we may have made it our own, embellishing an element here or there to drive a point home. Simply put, the better crafted the story, the more we engage with it; the more in impacts our lives as it resonates with us.
The power of a story to resonate, to open a space where we’re engaged to feel something and reflect on a different path can be leveraged to help empower behavior change.
Narrative Medicine and Behavior Change
Behavior change is hard, but compelling narrative helps people to see their own trajectory and activates them to author their own story; it supports them on that behavior change journey.
The discipline of narrative medicine is just that – the study of how to harness the power of narrative and the power of stories to tap into intrinsic human motivation.
Exploring Narrative in Healthcare Together
At Canary Health we’ve seen the challenge of behavior change through our work with tens of thousands of our program participants and we’ve seen the power of narrative to support them. And in an effort to continue to evolve our understanding and to work more closely with our clients and partners on this topic, we hosted a workshop last month to explore how the story metaphor applies to all our lives. We addressed how to apply the discipline of narrative to inspire behavior change. Through a series of interactive group activities we explored how to better understand and engage individuals on their behavior change journeys.
Many insights and learnings came out of the workshop, and that’s just the beginning of this story of stories. View a brief recap of the day here, and if you feel inspired to co-create with us, please don’t hesitate reach out to us.
