Ask the Author: Laurie Barkin
Answered Questions (7)
Laurie Barkin
Most of the time I was able to listen because I knew that by doing so, I was helping my patient to begin the process that would eventually enable them to move through the pain. I felt honored when someone trusted me enough to talk about painful, embarrassing, and humiliating events in their lives. Also, I have been trained to listen for feelings, to elicit them, to draw connections, to ask questions that illuminate and clarify them, and to help people tolerate them. Some people feel much relief when they are able to name the feeling in the body that underlies their thoughts and behaviors. Listening in this way, helps me not to internalize and personalize someone else's feelings.
But, there were times when I couldn't bear the feelings, especially when it had to do with cruelty to a child or the death of a child. Talking with my colleagues Janice and Antionette helped.
But, there were times when I couldn't bear the feelings, especially when it had to do with cruelty to a child or the death of a child. Talking with my colleagues Janice and Antionette helped.
Laurie Barkin
A novel about childhood trauma and recovery. In it, my protagonist—a successful nurse executive who dissociates to avoid the truth about her traumatic past—spirals downward when that past surfaces. On a healthcare mission to Zimbabwe meant to provide cover for her mental deterioration, she experiences a re-awakening of purpose, feelings, and sexuality.
Laurie Barkin
As a young girl, I discovered journaling as a way to identify, express, and understand feelings. In my work as a psychiatric nurse, I encouraged my patients do the same thing and to learn ways to manage difficult feelings. A strong desire to teach others what I know about mental health and emotional literacy undergirds my writing about trauma and coping in its aftermath.
Laurie Barkin
Long after I left my job on the trauma unit at SFGH, my patients’ voices and their stories were still clamoring in my head. I had a strong feeling that their stories needed to be told and that the clamoring wouldn’t stop until I wrote them down.
Laurie Barkin
Take a writing class. That’s where I met others who wanted to form a long term writing group. Four of us ended up being together for 8 years. I learned so much! They were my writing shepherds.
Laurie Barkin
Being able to go to Trader Joe’s and the gym during off-hours.
Laurie Barkin
Who me? I wish I could say that I wake up every day with brilliant ideas and a plan to execute them. Alas, on too many days I spend too much time settling down and settling into my project. Regarding remedies, I seesaw between distraction and meditation, exercise and self-hypnosis depending on the source. Most of the time is comes down to fear—that I have ADD or early onset dementia or that being blocked will be the new normal—and then I become anxious. Excuse me while I do some slow, deep breathing.
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