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Paul Browde, MD

Paul Browde, MD will be teaching during Wisdom and Wellbeing Multi-Faculty Week 6: The Promise & Crucible of Relational Life | February 7 – 14, 2026 about the following topic:

Story Medicine: The Sacred Art of Storytelling

This workshop invites you to explore storytelling as a path to healing and deeper connection. Through guided practices in deep listening, authentic sharing, and reimagining the stories we live by, you’ll learn how radical listening and connected telling,  shape the stories we tell—and the relationships we create. Experience what it means to be truly heard, to share your story without pressure, and to cross the bridge into another’s world with empathy and curiosity. Leave with practical tools and a renewed sense of connection to yourself and others.

Story Medicine is an invitation to experience storytelling as a living practice for healing and transforming relationships. Guided by Dr. Paul Browde, this workshop offers a space to slow down, listen deeply, and explore the stories that shape our connections—with others, ourselves, and our future.

You’ll develop practical skills in both listening and storytelling through guided practice and hands-on exercises. Learn how the quality of listening creates the environment where authentic stories emerge, and discover techniques for sharing your experiences without concern for performance to build genuine connection. The workshop includes dedicated practice time for both deep listening and authentic storytelling, allowing you to develop these complementary skills together.

Through reflective exercises and group dialogue, you’ll recognize and shift the patterns and beliefs that limit your relationships, drawing on moments of true connection as seeds for new possibilities. You’ll also receive guidance on how to cross the metaphorical bridge into another’s world through deep, attentive presence—an advanced practice that fosters empathy, intimacy, and mutual understanding.

Each element weaves together to offer practical tools and meaningful experiences you can carry into daily life. Whether you’re seeking to deepen existing relationships, discover new ways to connect, or join a community that values authentic expression, this workshop provides a supportive space to explore the sacred art of storytelling as a source of healing and transformation.

Paul Browde, MD is a psychiatrist, storyteller, couples’ guide, and educator who integrates narrative and relational practices in mental health and personal growth. He earned his medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and studied acting at the Drama Studio London, combining medicine and performing arts in his approach to healing and connection.

After completing his psychiatry residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, Dr. Browde has maintained a narratively informed psychiatric practice in Manhattan for over thirty years. His therapeutic work incorporates Internal Family Systems, Narrative Therapy, Mindfulness, and Coaching, with particular emphasis on story and deep listening as tools for transformation.

Grounded in narrative medicine, narrative therapy, and storytelling principles, Dr. Browde’s approach offers clinicians practical methods for deepening therapeutic relationships and enhancing client engagement. As co-founder of Narativ Inc., he has developed and taught listening and storytelling methods to individuals, couples, organizations, and advocacy groups worldwide, providing therapists with evidence-based techniques that can be integrated into clinical practice.

His work with the Open Society Foundations includes teaching storytelling for advocacy in Africa and Eastern Europe. Dr. Browde was one of the initial teachers in Columbia University’s Narrative Medicine Master’s Program and taught there for seven years, training healthcare professionals in narrative-based approaches.

Dr. Browde co-created and performs in Two Men Talking, an acclaimed unscripted storytelling performance that has been staged internationally, including South Africa, London’s West End, and Off-Broadway in New York City.

Through his workshops, performances, and clinical practice, Dr. Browde demonstrates how storytelling serves as a pathway to healing, empathy, and authentic connection across all areas of life, offering therapists powerful tools for enhancing their therapeutic work.