Episode Details

📝 Episode Synopsis

What happens when we stop trying to fix people's pain and instead learn how to truly witness it?

In this episode of Classroom Narratives, Dr. Joey Weisler welcomes narrative medicine practitioner and occupational therapist Dr. Rondalyn Whitney for a profound conversation on grief, storytelling, and compassionate listening.

The discussion ultimately invites educators to reconsider what it truly means to respond responsibly—not by carrying another person's pain, but by helping them know they do not have to carry it alone.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What narrative medicine is—and why it is rooted in deep listening rather than treatment.
• Why stories, literature, and writing can become powerful tools for witnessing rather than fixing pain.
• Dr. Rondalyn Whitney's personal journey through widowhood and how writing every day for "a year and a day" became an act of survival.
• The role of educators as compassionate witnesses while maintaining healthy professional boundaries.
• Why classrooms should make space for difficult conversations without becoming therapeutic spaces.
• How literature helps students develop empathy by learning to "deeply read" both texts and people.
• The difference between responding to students and feeling responsible for saving them.
• Why authentic listening often requires becoming comfortable with uncertainty and not immediately searching for solutions.

🔗 Links and Resources

📌 Rondalyn Whitney's website

📌Rondalyn Whitney's ResearchGate

📌Habits of Widows (by Rondalyn Whitney)

📌Lies in the Afterlife (by Rondalyn Whitney)

📌 Columbia University: Narrative Medicine Workshops

📌CLASSROOM NARRATIVES SEGMENT: Beyond the Text: Creating Safe Spaces for Emotional Learning with Dr. Adam Wolfsdorf