Our transdisciplinary community of Scholars and Fellows investigates critical questions, elevates evidence-based practices, and discovers cutting-edge solutions. These incredible thought leaders come from diverse fields—such as medicine, photobiology, atmospheric chemistry, epidemiology, and psychology—and their work examines the full spectrum of health, healing, and flourishing through many lenses. Here we share some highlights of their work.
In Laws, Nova Fellow Alan C. Logan, Scholar Susan Prescott, and coauthors Colleen Berryessa and Pragya Mishra discuss the relevance of the “judicial breakfast” in a judge’s well-being and event courtroom outcomes.
In Health Affairs, this opinion piece from Nova Scholar Diana Fishbein highlights how federal policy change threatens children and families nationwide—and how it can be stopped.
In the Journal of Acupuncture, Nova Scholar Claudia Witt and coauthors explore existing research and emerging trends in research of acupuncture for low-back pain.
In Challenges, Nova Scholars Susan Prescott and Sara Warber, Invited Faculty David Nelson and Mona El-Sherbini, and coauthors describe the Earthrise Community.
In The Lancet, Nova Scholar Steven Woolf and coauthors explore how dramatic federal policy change will likely impact public health and health research.
In a KFF Health News letter to the editor, Nova Scholar Diana Fishbein underscores the threats to addiction science under recent federal changes.
In npj Digital Medicine, Nova Scholar Claudia Witt and coauthors explore the impact of a mobile mindfulness and relaxation app on the mental health of people with cancer.
In the Harvard Law Review, Nova Scholar Osagie Obasogie offers the first in-depth analysis of how diagnoses of “excited delirium” are often accepted as fact in legal cases involving deaths in police custody, despite challenges to its legitimacy by most medical bodies.
In Medical Care, Nova Fellow Heidi Gullet and Scholar Kurt Stange explore a scalable electronic health record (EHR)-facilitated, clinic-to-community linkage (CCL) program that addresses social needs between health systems.
In Family Medicine, Nova Scholar Kurt Stange reviews the third edition of Doing Qualitative Research by Benjamin F. Crabtree and William L. Miller.
In a National Academy of Medicine discussion paper, Nova Scholar Christina Bethell and coauthors seek to advance the field of child health through practical and policy recommendations.
In Addiction Neuroscience, Nova Scholar Diana Fishbein describes a transdisciplinary neuroscience approach to substance use prevention.
Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.
Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”
“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad.
When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.)
“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”
Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.”
Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”
In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.”
Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding.
There is some debate about whether people always experience suffering on the path to healing.
Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors.
“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”
Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.
Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.
Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.
