Hi, I'm Henry Bear.

And I'm Tyler Johnson.

And you're listening to The Doctors Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.

Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered.

What makes medicine meaningful?

Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?

How can we build health care institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection?

What can we learn about the human condition

from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?

In seeking answers to these questions,

we meet with deep thinkers working across health care, from doctors and nurses to patients and health care executives, those who have collected a career's worth of hard-earned wisdom.

Probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heartbreaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.

We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.

Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing

can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.

What is the intersection between psychotherapy and Buddhism?

For decades, Dr Mark Epstein, a practicing Buddhist and psychiatrist, has deeply explored

how Buddhist philosophy can be integrated into therapy to help patients heal from trauma.

His key insight is that Buddhism grants us the wisdom to reshape our relationships with our personal stories through which we conceptualize and

contextualize our emotions and identities. Dr. Epstein is the author of multiple books, including Thoughts Without a thinker, the trauma of everyday life,

advice not given, and most recently the Zen of therapy, uncovering a hidden kindness in life.

Over the course of our conversation, Dr Epstein shares how he discovered Buddhist meditative and mindfulness practices during his formative years.

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