Overview

Narrative Medicine is an interdisciplinary approach that foregrounds the central role of story, reflection, and meaning-making in clinical care. Join Dr. Tanvi Gandhi as she introduces Narrative Medicine as a complementary modality within integrative psychiatry, highlighting its capacity to deepen understanding of the lived experience of illness, psychological distress, trauma, and recovery.

Through reflective writing, attentive listening, and close engagement with patient and clinician narratives, Narrative Medicine provides a framework for strengthening therapeutic presence, enhancing empathic communication, and supporting more individualized and holistic models of care.

For patients, Narrative Medicine may support the articulation and reframing of personal experiences of suffering, fostering insight, agency, resilience, and emotional integration. For physicians and healthcare professionals, it offers a reflective practice that can cultivate self-awareness, creativity, empathy, and resilience in response to professional stress and burnout. Within an integrative psychiatry paradigm, Narrative Medicine bridges evidence-informed treatment with the subjective human experience of healing, offering a relational and humanistic pathway toward compassionate, patient-centered care.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this webinar participants will be able to: 

  1. Define Narrative Medicine and describe its theoretical foundations as an interdisciplinary approach to clinical care.
  2. Explain how Narrative Medicine can be integrated as a complementary modality within integrative psychiatry.
  3. Identify ways in which reflective writing, attentive listening, and close engagement with narrative can strengthen the therapeutic alliance and enhance empathic communication.
  4. Discuss the potential benefits of Narrative Medicine for patients, including improved self-understanding, agency, resilience, and emotional integration.
  5. Describe how Narrative Medicine may support physician and provider well-being by fostering reflection, creativity, self-awareness, and resilience in response to professional stress and burnout.
  6. Apply Narrative Medicine principles to promote more compassionate, individualized, and holistic approaches to mental health care.

Instructor

Tanvi Gandhi, ND, LAc

Dr. Tanvi Gandhi, ND, L.Ac., is a naturopathic physician, certified integrative psychiatry provider, and licensed acupuncturist in Connecticut and New York. She is the founder of Shiva-Shakti Acupuncture and Ayurveda, a Stamford, Connecticut-based practice that integrates ancient healing traditions with modern integrative medicine. With academic training in microbiology, immunology, and genetics from UCLA and research experience at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Gandhi brings a strong scientific foundation to her holistic clinical work. Her advanced training includes certification as an integrative psychiatry provider through the IPI Institute, Narrative Medicine training at Columbia University, and a fellowship in integrative psychiatry at the University of Colorado. She is currently a fellow in Pediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry Redefined and serves on the Narrative Medicine faculty for Psychiatry Redefined. Dr. Gandhi serves as the integrative psychiatry and wellness provider for the Acute, Transitional Living, and Outpatient programs at Silver Hill Hospital, where she provides one-on-one care and facilitates mindfulness and integrative wellness groups for adults and adolescents. She is also involved with the Trauma-Focused Program and Professionals Residential Program, bringing a grounded, compassionate presence to individuals navigating complex mental health needs. During medical school, she received the “Best Student Doctor Who Is Calm in Crisis” award, reflecting the calm, centered approach she brings to clinical care. Dr. Gandhi’s clinical approach integrates naturopathic medicine, East Asian medicine, integrative psychiatry, Ayurveda, and Narrative Medicine. Guided by the vis mediatrix naturae philosophy and the “doctor as teacher” model, she emphasizes comprehensive assessment, diagnostic reasoning, patient education, safety, and individualized care. Her therapeutic work may include supplements, homeopathy, craniosacral therapy, acupuncture, Ayurvedic marma therapy, nutrition and lifestyle counseling, stress management, mindfulness-based therapies, sound-based wellness practices, and narrative-based reflection. Beyond her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Gandhi is deeply invested in community mental health and wellness education. She leads Mindful Alchemy and sound-based wellness programs throughout Fairfield County and the New York City area. Whether working with patients individually or facilitating groups, she aims to equip individuals with tools for self-awareness, self-healing, resilience, and deep inner restoration. Dr. Gandhi’s contributions to the field include publications in NDNR and the Intima Journal of Narrative Medicine, as well as appearances on various podcasts. She has presented “Marma and Ayurveda Applications in Integrative Psychiatry” at the CNPA conference and “Physician Heal Thyself: Narrative Medicine and Integrative Psychiatry” at the NYANP conference. She is an active member of PsychANP, a board director for the Connecticut Naturopathic Physician Association, fundraising committee for NYANP, and a longtime member of the Connecticut Society of Acupuncturists.