The Lift
The Lift is a podcast where we bring you conversations with healthcare workers, explore their experience navigating critical issues in the healthcare system and consider what fosters their sense of well-being at work, helps them to flourish, and learn what drives them forward.
Tune in weekly with our host Dr. Mary Elliott, a Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist and Mindfulness Teacher at Princess Margaret Cancer Center.
The Lift
Ep. 8: Poetry as Medicine
This week, our featured guest on The Lift Podcast is Ronna Bloom, an educator, writing coach, and author of seven books and a chapbook. Her latest book, A Possible Trust: The Poetry of Ronna Bloom (Edited by Phil Hall) is available to order through Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Ronna is also an arts innovator. With support from Ontario Arts Council, and in conjunction with the Health, Arts & Humanities program at the University of Toronto, she was instrumental in establishing the role of Poet-in-Residence at Mount Sinai Hospital, which she held from 2012 until 2019. Using Rx for Poetry, Ronna launched creative initiatives to reach healthcare workers, trainees, patients, and family members, by operating a Spontaneous Poetry Booth in hospitals and the community.
She is a sought-after facilitator of poetry workshops, and has developed a national training program, Community Engagement Through Poetry – the first cohort of which was sponsored by the Government of Newfoundland and Pedler Press. Her poems have been recorded by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, translated into Spanish, Bangla, and Chinese, and she's done work with architects, filmmakers, doctors, academics, and spiritual leaders.
In this episode, Ronna sits down with Dr. Mary Elliott to share her experience bringing poetry to healthcare workers and explores how this might help them pause, reflect and metabolize their experience.
Read more about Ronna Bloom
Order a copy of “A Possible Trust: The Poetry of Ronna Bloom” (Edited by Phil Hall)
https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/A/A-Possible-Trust
More About Our Host
Dr. Mary Elliott is a Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, and Mindfulness Teacher at Princess Margaret Cancer Center, University Health Network.
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