Miniya Williams

Narrative-Centered Care: Reimagining Women’s Health Horizons

Miniya Williams

Columbia University

mnw2131@columbia.edu

This paper will discuss the imperative need for an interdisciplinary, intercultural, and interconnected approach to women’s health and healing. This presentation is grounded in the Narrative Medicine practice of close reading (and listening) to foster relationality and phenomenology as a means of grounding lived experiences in medicine and culture. To do this, we will explore African descendant women authors’ novels that depict various cultural perspectives and historical practices of healing, health, and resistance through the art of storytelling. Through their narratives, we will receive sacred systems of belief, healing, and wisdom; as readers, we will offer space for recognition. This paper will explore the impact of illness and healing narratives by examining how narratives are culturally shaped and their significance for Western biomedical practices. This presentation uses narrative as a guide and foundation of practical action; and narrative structure of clinical encounters. Moreover, this paper will address the importance of using diverse narratives to aim to understand the subjectivity of individuals’ health-related experiences and the interconnectedness of literary frameworks to stories of illness and healing—while factoring in the specific cultural backgrounds of the individuals. The practice of Narrative Medicine fortifies health care with the intent of receiving accounts of others while recognizing, absorbing, interpreting, and being moved to action. Considering Western biomedicine occupies space in a neocolonial world, there are ethical limitations to recognizing others (i.e. bias, systemic racism). Knowing this, it is imperative to consider that cultural considerations demand these principles be applied with mindfulness to both the cultural values and cultural intersectionalities of individuals. 

BIOGRAPHY

Miniya Williams is a graduate student at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies, pursuing a Master’s in Narrative Medicine. A proud alumna of Spelman College, where she studied Psychology, Miniya attributes her time there with fostering her passion for intersectionality, cultural storytelling, and community-centered healing practices. Her academic journey and lived experiences have been shaped by a deep respect for the resilience of Afro-descendant and Indigenous spiritual traditions, particularly their approaches to mental and spiritual well-being. Miniya draws on interdisciplinary frameworks, including Narrative Medicine, philosophy, and anthropology. She is particularly interested in the intersections of identity, healing, and storytelling, focusing on how lived experiences shape clinical encounters.