Brief Biography

Lewis Mehl-Madrona MD, PhD

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, graduated from Stanford University School of
Medicine and trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical
psychology. He completed his residencies in family medicine and in
psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has
been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as
associate professor of family medicine at the University of New
England. He continues to work with aboriginal communities to develop
uniquely aboriginal styles of healing and health care for use in those
communities. He is interested in the relation of healing through
dialogue in community and psychosis. He is the author of Coyote
Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on
what Native culture has to offer the modern world. He has also
written Narrative Medicine, Healing the Mind through the Power of
Story: the Promise of Narrative Psychiatry, and, his most recent book
with Barbara Mainguy, Remapping Your Mind: the Neuroscience of
Self-Transformation through Story. Lewis currently works with Wabanaki
Public Health and Wellness, which serves the five tribes of Maine. He
also works part-time at Acadia Hospital and with the Family Medicine
Residency at Eastern Maine Medical Center. He serves on the Board of
Directors of the Coyote Institute for Studies of Change and
Transformation. Lewis has been studying traditional healing and
healers since his early days and has written about their work and the
process of healing. His primary focus has been upon Cherokee and
Lakota traditions, though he has also explored other Plains Cultures
and those of Northeastern North America. His goal is to bring the
wisdom of indigenous peoples about healing back into mainstream
medicine and to transform medicine and psychology through this wisdom
coupled with more European-derived narrative traditions. He has
written scientific papers in these areas and continues to do research.
He writes a weekly (almost) blog on health and mental health for
www.futurehealth.org. His current interests center around psychosis
and its treatment within community and with non-pharmacological means,
narrative approaches to chronic pain and its use in primary care, and
further developing healing paradigms within a narrative/indigenous
framework.

I have been reading Mehl-Madrona while up here…

-- preparing for the Council. On the one hand, he is clearly teaching what he has gathered and synthesized of the Native American way. On the other hand, he is so fluent in western medicine and thought, the reader -- or is it the listener -- doesn't see how subtely he is focusing healing through a native perspective. Perhaps the most ardent example is his discussion of the healing power of story -- which is his medicine.  Since stories, by their nature, are connections - stories are the pattern of the connection of people and events in ways that convey meaning -- they posit connection even without theorizing about it.  Thus the use of story integrates the suffering person into a field of connection [all my relations] instead of believing he or she is separate.  The healing, begins then, with this integration -- a healing of the person within a field of connections -- and so Mehl-Madrona creates the field of 'all my relations' so subtely, we don't realize we are being initiated into another cultural world view

 - Deena Metzger, California

I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in 1999 and after quickly becoming disenchanted with the traditional route of using medicines to treat the symptoms versus working towards healing my body, I began doing my own research and seeking out alternative practitioners who could help me in my journey.  Each step was informative and helpful, but eight years later - while I had successfully avoided major surgery and powerful, potentially carcinogenic meds - I was still physically struggling and feeling alone in the process. As I wrote to a close friend: "…All these years I've been a lone ranger. . .  pretty much holding the candle of hope by myself.  I'm beaten down enough physically and feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed by the magnitude of my illness right now."  It was about this time that I happened upon Lewis' book Coyote Healing, and read it cover-to-cover in one night.  His obvious brilliance and humbleness stood out and as a psychotherapist I appreciated his narrative approach, but what was absolutely compelling to me was his position of hope.  Doing a Healing Intensive with Lewis was inspiring and transformational on all levels: physical, emotional, spiritual, and cognitive.  He utilized ritual, discussion/therapy, healing energy, imagery, Cherokee bodywork, journaling, meditative retreat, spirituality, community, and a sweatlodge to invoke healing on a deeper and more comprehensive level than any individual approach could have offered. He is an amazing, knowledgeable, very generous, and extremely compassionate healer.  I (and my children) will forever be grateful to him.

I attended Lewis's workshop in Melbourne, Australia and was honored and excited to be part of the Coyote experience!

The hard part, really, is putting into words the experience of the weekend. Firstly, it was amazing at the ease in which everyone came together, I would contribute this to Lewis's nature and ability to make everyone feel connected and welcome, just his presence without words was enough to have any pre determined expectations clear the room, and his genuine nature helped everything else fall away and have truth emerge, I experienced this myself and also felt that from everyone else in the group. I am so grateful that this knowledge is able to be shared throughout the world. My hope is that one day everyone will get to experience this workshop and that Lewis’ dream of leaving behind communities will become a reality. We have already begun here and I hope to support it to continue to grow in Australia and I trust that all things will support this coming into fruition. Lewis and the Coyote weekend gave me the biggest gift of meeting some amazing people and connecting with their beautiful spirits but more importantly I found my own spirit again, something I didn't even realized I had lost......I am soooooo excited about Lewis’ return next year and to share changes that have occurred in his absence and to also take part in some more traditional ceremonies. Thank you Lewis and to all the others around the world for supporting this work and because of that it has made it possible for me to connect with all of you and become part of something much bigger. I feel "at home" THANK YOU xxx

- Kylie Dexter, Australia