I write about intimacies. Husbands and divorces; deaths of loved ones, moving an autistic child to a group home; how medical care stunted my growth (I’m not quite 4’9). And I write about children. My children. Adults, all four. I take a collaborative approach, as I did in healthcare. There is not so much a writer and a written about, a subject and object, but a dyad, a relational unit between equals. This “co-creation” serves well, in healthcare as in writing.

Whose stories do I tell? My view is only my lens, one perspective, as it was in psychotherapy. This intimates a relational, dyadic approach that may translate directly, albeit imperfectly, to writers writing about love, relationships, children, others. Sometimes, if so intimate and indicated, I consult with those I write of, striving never to publish anything that might hurt—and not help—those I love.