Such a primitive form of medicine? What did this mean? I was at medical school at Oxford University, no less. What could be primitive about Oxford? In any case, who was I to distinguish what was primitive medicine and what was health? I was just a student, barely out of my second year of medical school. Besides what is healing? What constitutes healing? And that last statement: This is not your life? I was a Rhodes scholar, the first Bahamian Rhodes scholar, and first woman from the British Caribbean to win that scholarship. I’d grown up as a poor kid in the slums of Nassau. I was the first generation of my family to go to university. I was on my way. As far as some people were concerned, I had arrived. I’d worked hard to be here, literally willed it into being ever since I’d heard of Oxford at fifteen. For years I had held mental images of those perfectly manicured lawns, the ancient sand-stoned buildings, the scholars perambulating the college quadrangles in their gowns, images I’d first seen in the Oxford University brochure my friend Rina, had shown me. That afternoon she and I had laid on our bellies on her bed as little girls, kicking the air with our legs, musing about our future still seemed like yesterday to me. Was I now supposed to abandon medicine all together, follow an entirely different career path? And, if western medicine, as I was being trained to practice it was not health, then what was health? What did the distinctions between medicine, health, and healing have to do with me? Was healing what I was supposed to be doing?
      

Little did I know back then, that the decision to follow my own path all those years ago, to explore the broader meaning of health and healing, and most of all, to listen to my own internal voice would take me on a journey that would ultimately lead to my discovering what I have come to believe is perhaps one of the keys to health and well-being – namely that creativity. Creativity is one of the keys to health and well-being. And what we have now come to see as the ‘creative arts’ are essentially ‘healing arts’.

      I’ve certainly had my fair share of challenges and unexpected twists and turns along the way. Each of which, has, in its own way, been a gift. I’ve homeless. (I spent the last eight (8) months of my PhD – the ‘Writing-up’ stage, homeless, surviving with the help of friends and the grace of strangers, which taught me so many lessons about how to be ‘present’). I have also worked as a doctor in a Category A, maximum security prison (by choice). In fact, it was as a result of an encounter with a Category A prisoner that I learned how to meditate.

      Not long after I’d begun meditating, I had the idea of using live music and dramatic performances in the public spaces of hospitals as a way of bringing a spirit of hope and aliveness to these spaces. Most of all, I was convinced of the possibility of live music for creating the context for raising the consciousness of patients and their families and the healthcare professionals who spend so many hours in these often cold, clinical environment. Having this music performed by Street-performers (who are often vulnerable and sometimes homeless) resulted in these live music and dramatic performances be healing for both performers and patients.
    

  In October 2002 the first two Live Music days took place at Guys Hospitals and St Thomas’s Hospitals in London. All of the musicians were paid by the Trust. Over fifty people (patients, their families and staff) wrote in to the hospital to say how much they enjoyed being in those public spaces on those days. Five of the Street-performers donated their performance fees towards the establishment of a charity, Performing Cures devoted to live music to the public spaces of hospitals and health care centers.
     

 I’ve worked in many different arenas relating to health care. I’ve worked on the front line of medicine in busy hospitals (medical and psychiatric) in London. As one of the co-founders of a National Urban Renewal Initiative and Consultant to the Prime Minister of The Bahamas in Urban Renewal and Human Development I did health-care research and set up a small research unit as well as being involved in policy development and the design and implementation of innovative well-being and educational programs designed to bring hope and possibility to people living in stressed communities. Being a Professor of Behavioral Science at a US medicals school offered me the opportunity to be involved in training and inspiring tomorrow’s doctors to be more humane.
I have been living this way, allowing my creativity and creative gifts to make room for me for pretty much all of my life. There’s no doubting the fact that my creative pursuits - writing (fiction and non-fiction), music, and visual art – have transformed my career and personal life in more positive ways than I could ever have imagined possible, or achieved otherwise.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned along the way it’s the value of reciprocity. Give in love, and love will always find its way back to you, which is why I’m offering resources like Creative Living Connections absolute Free! It’s also the reason for my new radio show Healing through Creativity. This weekly radio talk show debuts on Thursday June 17th, 2010 12:00 noon to 13:00 EST. (That’s 9:00am to 10:00am PST) on the Health and Wellness Channel of the largest live internet talk radio broadcasting company in the United States VoiceAmerica. Click the icon below to listen to last week’s radio talk show.

Over the years people have asked me for a structured learning approach and more time for in-depth discussion (than is possible on the Talk Show) about the specific gifts of each of the modalities of the creative arts, and how to apply them in your lives. I’ve developed a series of Webinar Courses to help people live more fulfilling and prosperous lives with their natural talents and abilities.

Maybe you’ve stumbled on some of these secrets of creativity and healing in your own life. In which case I hope you’ll plug into our Blog conversations.

Maybe you’d like to want to write a book, or join a yoga class, or get back to dancing or theatre, or paint, but you don’t know how to get started, or don’t know where to start, or don’t think you have the talent to do anything creative. Well, Creative Living Connections (which is absolutely Free) will give you weekly tips to get you started, the Webinar courses will help you structure your life to make this possible, and, on Healing Through Creativity Radio Talk show you will have the opportunity to listen to and interact with experts and ordinary people from all over the world (and from all walks of life) who will be sharing information and stories to help and inspire you.

I am also available for one-on-one coaching sessions. For more information about one-on-one, or small group coaching sessions, contact me directly.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to meeting and or interacting with you in future.

Desiree