Coyote Wisdom: The Power of Story in Healing

An in-depth look at the therapeutic and transformative powers of storytelling in Native American and other cultures • Explores how to create a healing state of mind using stories • Includes healing stories from Native American traditions and other cultures from around the world • By the author of the bestselling Coyote Medicine Stories are powerful sources of meaning that shape and transform our lives. We tell stories to track our process of personal and spiritual growth and to honor and respect the journeys we have made. Through stories we are provided with experiences of spiritual empowerment that can lead to transformation. In Coyote Wisdom, Lewis Mehl-Madrona explores the healing use of stories passed down from generation to generation in Native American culture and describes how we can apply this wisdom to empower and transform our own lives. A storytelling approach to transformation starts with how we were created and how we can re-create ourselves through the stories we tell. As we explore the archetypal characters and situations that populate the inner world of our stories, we can experience breakthroughs of healing and even miracles of transformation. This approach to healing through stories runs counter to the current model of modern psychology. The stories we tell about ourselves may model our lives, but by introducing new characters and plots, we can come to see ourselves in a new way. The author also draws upon the cultures of other indigenous peoples--the Maori, East Africans, Mongolians, Aborigines, and Laplanders--to illustrate the healing use of stories throughout the world.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Preface Introduction 1 Creation Stories 2 Stealing Fire 3 Stories of Transformation 4 Stories of Connectivity 5 Stories That Heal 6 Telling Our Story 7 Stories as Psychotherapy 8 Archetypes as Agents of Change 9 Stories of Miracles 10 Reauthoring Therapy Notes

About the Author :
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D., is certified in family practice, geriatrics, and psychiatry and worked for years in rural emergency medicine. He works with the Center for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science at the University of Arizona and is also affiliated with its College of Public Health. He is the author of Coyote Healing and the bestselling Coyote Medicine.

Review :
". . . Mehl-Madrona shows how other forms of story have given his patients power, allowed for their transformation and healing, and shown them their connection with their community." "There are few people who would not recognize some piece of their lives in each of these stories." “Coyote Wisdom is about soul and mind--the shared journey of healer and patient toward insights and images that break us out of our frozen-heart places and transform awareness, and thus permit us to let go of suffering. As a physician and one who also strives to heal patients, not just treat them, I honor Dr. Mehl-Madrona for achieving a practical clinical method in Coyote Wisdom that is woven from the artistry of storytelling in the tradition of his elders and his reverence for the healing power of universal myths.” “Coyote Wisdom is a gateway to understanding the importance of stories in rituals and ceremonies. Mehl-Madrona’s study of healers is a step forward in explaining the implicit wisdom that healers convey to help people get well. To journey with him is a way to be transformed and healed.” “In this, his third book, Lewis Mehl-Madrona introduces systems narrative medicine, giving professional and lay readers alike a chance to learn the healing secrets of story from a master storyteller. Readers will finish the book inspired by the power of story as a catalyst for healing and enriched with practical guidance on how to access this power.” “Lewis Mehl-Madrona has spent many years exploring and developing means of integrating American Indian healing techniques into Western medicine. In Coyote Wisdom, he gives fresh insights into the power of the spoken word to bring forth miraculous healings and fulfill other human needs. His views on the psychology of the miraculous serve as an important contribution to our understanding of native medicine powers.” “With his stories, I have seen Dr. Mehl-Madrona heal patients that all other physicians had given up on. The stories in this book are healing in and of themselves. Just reading them brings hope where there may have been none.” “Coyote Wisdom is an inspired book about how the spoken word can transform disease. Lewis Mehl-Madrona offers a perspective much needed by medicine today: that stories matter. Just encouraging patients to tell their stories and listening to them with full attention can increase the probability of spontaneous healings. Doctors and patients have much to gain by incorporating this wisdom into their lives.” “In Coyote Wisdom, Lewis Mehl-Madrona writes that patients’ stories hold clues for how we can best help them. This is another way of saying that beliefs, values, and culture influence treatment. Medicine can work so much better by appreciating this.” Lewis Mehl-Madrona is certified in family practice, geriatrics and psychiatry, and includes Native American traditions in his practice. Healing through storytelling is the principal approach he shares in this book . . . . Through these stories, he helps people discover the inner healing resources that can transform their lives, including their illnesses. He reports dramatic successes--often with people who have struggled for many years with their health issues--including anorexia, lupus, victimization through emotional and physical abuse, panic disorder, and more. . . . These tales provide insights into a person’s hidden fears and hurts that often underlie and contribute to or even cause the development of many physical and psychological problems. The stories also suggest a variety of solutions and inspire hope that change is possible. "Coyote Wisdom demonstrates how to successfully utilize characters and plots from movies, books, popular culture and indigenous traditions, to easily reinterpret and reauthor the story of illness into one of health and well-being." "Rather than a book of Native American stories, Coyote Wisdom successfully demonstrates how to . . . reinterpret and re-author the story of illness into one of health and well-being."