[SPR26] Minding Our Stories, Storying Our Minds: Rachel Aviv on Stories That Heal and Stories That Constrain

Minding our stories, storying our minds: rachel aviv on stories that heal and stories that constrain

Hybrid Format |takes Place april 22nd from 5:00pm to 6:30pm

On Campus: Corcoran Commons Heights Room

Presenters:

Rachel Aviv is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she just has reported extensively on psychiatry, medial ethics, criminal justice, and how institutions shape intimate life. Her work has been recognized with the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting and the National Magazine Award for Profile Writing. Aviv's 2022 book, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us, was a New York Times bestseller and names one of the "10 Best Books of 2022." In it, she follows several people whose inner lives cannot be fully contained by psychiatric categories, drawing on their letters, diaries, and legal and clinical documents to explore how diagnosis can both help and confine. Aviv's forthcoming book, You Won't Get Free of It (July 2026), gathers and reconceives seven essays about mothers and daughters navigating disowned knowledge, recognition, and refusal. Across her work, Aviv models epistemic humility and careful listening, inviting readers, clinicians, and the broader public to hold multiple frameworks in view while staying close to the person's own words.

Justin Karter, PhD, is the Acting Program Director, PsyD in Clinical Psychology & Psychological Humanities, Boston College.

** If you will not be seeking CE credits, please use the following code to register at no cost:  MINDING2026

Description:

This year's annual Philip Cushman Lecture features New Yorker staff writer and author Rachel Aviv in a moderated conversation about the stories we tell about mental illness, trauma, and diagnosis, and the ways those stories can both expand and restrict possibilities for living. Aviv's book Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us follows people whose experiences of distress do not fit neatly inside psychiatric categories, drawing on diaries, letters, and other first-person documents to illuminate how language and diagnosis shape their senses of self. In dialogue with contemporary critiques of "disorderism" and over-pathologising young people's distress, and work with on the ethical stakes of diagnosis and trauma discourse, the conversation will explore how clinical and institutional languages influence what becomes thinkable for patients and practitioners alike. Attention will be given to the tensions between the clarity a diagnosis or trauma narrative can offer and the ways those same narratives may confine a person inside a limited story of themselves. The format will include 45-50 minutes of moderated interview followed by audience Q&A. Participants will be invited to consider how Aviv's narrative practice can inform more ethically attuned interviewing, case formulation, and trauma-informed work in clinical and macro social work settings.

This offering is made possible in part through collaboration with the Kern National Network for Flourishing in Health (KNN). The KNN is a movement dedicated to advancing flourishing across the health ecosystem. Through research-based strategies that promote character, caring, and practical wisdom, the KNN partners with organizations to unlock their potential and build cultures that elevate everyone. Our strengths-based methods combine a robust guiding framework, scholar-practitioner approaches, deep subject matter expertise, and national peer collaboration to solve complex culture and workforce challenges. To learn more, visit the KNN website.

Learning Objectives:

1) Analyze at least two case examples from Rachel Aviv's reporting to identify how diagnostic and trauma narratives shape individuals' self-understanding, help-seeking, and engagement with treatment. 

2) Differentiate between narrative practices that open versus constrain possibilities for meaning-making and agency, and identify at least two interviewing or formulation strategies that center clients' own language for their suffering.

3) Apply insights from recent critiques of diagnosis and trauma discourse to at least one domain of their practice (such as assessment, treatment planning, program design, or policy language).

Timeline and Requirements:

The course will take place on April 22nd from 5:00pm to 6:30pm. On campus, this workshop will be located in Corcoran Commons Heights Room on Boston College's campus. 

CE Sponsorship: 

University Counseling Services of Boston College is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. As a co-sponsor of this program, University Counseling Services of Boston College maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Participants will be eligible to receive 1.5 CE units from the University Counseling Services of Boston College.

This program has been approved for 1.5 Social Work Continuing Education hours for relicensure, in accordance with 258 CMR. NASW-MA Chapter CE Approval Program Authorization Number D 20019-2.

The Center for Psychological Humanities and Ethics is providing sponsorship for CEUs for Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHC). This program has been approved by MaMHCA/MCEAP for 1.5 CEs. 

Fees and Policies: 

Payment is due by credit card at registration. Refunds will be granted only up until registration closes at 4pm on April 22nd. No refunds will be granted for errors on the participant's part (such as incorrect name/email upon registration, login failure, scheduling conflicts, etc.).

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. If you need to request an accommodation or ask a question about accessibility, please contact wcas.cece@bc.edu.

Additional offerings from the Woods College Office of Continuing Education and Community Engagement can be found on our website.