Overview

The first step in better understanding stories of illness is to listen — and deep listening is an invaluable skill that can be developed with practice.

What does it mean to listen from a place of full presence? To be a witness to stories of suffering? The impact of deep listening in healthcare is profound: when patients feel truly heard, their experiences are validated, practitioners feel more connected to their patients, and opportunities for better care emerge.

When we learn how to listen, we can begin to identify different types of illness narratives and how to best respond to them with empathy, equanimity, and individualized care, as well as the space to sit with our own reactions.

In this workshop, we will explore what it means to really listen, and strengthen that muscle together in practice. Through close reading of literary and artistic texts, we will encounter different types of illness narratives from the patient perspective, seeing the patient as an expert in their experience and a collaborator in the healing process: key tenets of narrative-based medicine. We will also unpack what happens when we receive these stories of suffering.

This workshop also offers a supportive environment for empathic listening in which to write and share illness stories we have witnessed or our own personal illness narratives.

Program Instructor

Alisha Kaplan MFA, MS

Alisha Kaplan is a poet, educator, and practitioner of narrative medicine. Using the arts, she works with health professionals and patients to reinvigorate medicine with care and humanity.

Alisha holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University and an MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. Her debut collection of poems, Qorbanot: Offerings, a collaboration with artist Tobi Kahn, won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award from the League of Canadian Poets.

Alisha is a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Fellowship and winner of the Hippocrates Prize in Poetry and Medicine, the W.B. Yeats Society of New York Poetry Competition, and the Eden Mills Writers Festival Literary Contest. Her writing has appeared in PRISM International, Carousel, Fence, Lilith, The New Quarterly, and elsewhere. Alisha splits her time between Toronto and Bela Farm. Learn more on her website.

Learning Objectives

This workshop will encourage participants to:

• Identify and interpret different types of illness narratives through narrative-based medicine theory and close reading of literary and artistic texts
• Cultivate skills of deep listening, close observation, and empathic response to stories of illness and suffering
• Express and respond to illness narratives through reflective, creative writing in a supportive community

Target Audience

This workshop is open to anyone working within and outside of healthcare, and to those coming from the practitioner or patient perspective. No prior writing or narrative-based medicine experience is necessary.

Session Dates & Times

Sessions will take place online during the following dates and times:

• Wednesday, November 5, 2025 from 6:00 – 8:30 pm ET
• Wednesday, November 12, 2025 from 6:00 – 8:30 pm ET

Fee

The program fee is $525 CAD plus 13% HST.

All amounts are in Canadian Dollars (CAD $) and are subject to 13% HST.

Cancellation

Cancellations will be accepted until Wednesday, October 29, 2025 and are subject to a processing fee of $60 plus applicable taxes. Refunds will not be processed after this date.

Requests for cancellation must be made in writing to cpd.programs@utoronto.ca .

Registrations are not transferable.

The University of Toronto reserves the right to cancel events. Registrants will be notified at the earliest possible date in the event of a cancellation. Registration fees for events cancelled by the University will be refunded; however, the University will not be liable for any loss, damages or other expenses that such cancellations may cause.

Accreditation

Continuing Professional Development (CPD), Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, is fully accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME), a subcommittee of the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS). This standard allows CPD to review and assess educational activities based on the criteria established by The College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (Royal College) has established agreements with each of the American Medical Association (AMA), and the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME®) where activities approved for Royal College MOC Credits are eligible for conversion to AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ and UEMS-EACCME European CME Credit (ECMEC®) credits, respectively.