Explore the Art of Being with Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny
Bringing with her the traditional Aboriginal practices of dadirri—a sacred practice of deep listening, reflection, stillness and connection to the land—and yarning—a conversational practice used by indigenous Australians to share knowledge, stories, and culture, Dr. Catherine Olweny offers another pathway to Mastering the Art of Being. Her many life experiences and training led her to work as a paediatric anaesthetist and medical doctor, and also to help clinicians develop a greater ability to look and listen closely, to attend to patients and their family, to be curious and attentive, and to be fully present. Cultivating this presence is a gift she found in her own life, one she shares with other clinicians, and one we can learn from as well.
Meet and hear more from Catherine through her writings and podcasts.
Course Material
Invitation to Exploring the Art of Being
In this invitation to Exploring the Art of Being, July 2026 Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny invites us into her world, where her lived experience as a migrant and a black woman; a student of literature, medicine, and hypnosis; and as both a doctor and a healer affect her worldview. Share her journey at Commonweal, cultivating meaningful, experiential ways to benefit patients and clinicians that center healing arts, collective narrative practices from the Aboriginal Australian traditions, and mindfulness-based approaches as the foundation to her work.
Art for Our Common Good: Creativity, Health, and Civic Life | Part 2
What role can art play in helping us meet this moment? As communities face growing loneliness, burnout, environmental anxiety, and civic division, the arts can create spaces for healing, connection, and hope. Join us for part 2 of this podcast, a conversation with Visiting Scholar Dr. Catherine Olweny and Host Lisa Simms Booth.
Re-Dreaming Healing through Narrative and Story
Bringing with her the traditional Aboriginal practices of dadirri—a sacred practice of deep listening, reflection, stillness, and connection to the land—and yarning—a conversational practice used by indigenous Australians to share knowledge, stories, and culture—Catherine Olweny talks about ways that art and narrative techniques allow difficult experiences to be shared.
Quiet Reflection in Community: My Residency at Commonweal
In this short article, Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny reflects on her residency at Commonweal New School.
Dr. Catherine Olweny
Catherine is Commonweal New School’s Visiting Scholar in July 2026. She is a consultant paediatric anaesthetist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, where she has worked since 2009. She has special interest in the prevention and management of procedural anxiety and distress and the prevention of medical trauma. She incorporates hypnosis, Visual Thinking Strategies, the humanities, narrative, and the imagination into her work, which has allowed her to shift the way she teaches language and communication in healthcare contexts.
Catherine studied medicine at Flinders University of South Australia. She was awarded Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) in 2009 and Associate Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (RACMA) in 2023. She has a Master of Arts, French Studies, and a Master of Counselling. In 2017 Catherine trained in hypnosis in Paris, eventually completing a diploma in clinical hypnosis at the South Australian Society of Hypnosis in 2018. She has since incorporated hypnosis based advanced communication into her everyday practice as an anaesthetist. She practices as a registered counsellor and clinical hypnotherapist, providing therapy to paediatric patients with chronic pain, anxiety and emotional regulation challenges. She also provides supportive counselling and hypnotherapy to senior medical sta[, international medical graduates, doctors in training and medical students. More recently Catherine trained as a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) facilitator and coach. Her interest in VTS stemmed from a search for experiential methods to build clinician tolerance for uncertainty.