Trusting the Process: The Basics of Discovery Model Learning

Part of the Healing Circles Series

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, with Host Michael Lerner

~A Healing Circles and New School Event~

Please join us for this series with Dr. Rachel Remen. She is joined by Commonweal Founder Michael Lerner as well as Healing Circles-Langley Founders Diana and Kelly Lindsay.

In part 1 of this series, Michael Lerner introduces the speakers and Healing Circles community. Diana and Kelly Lindsay give an overview of Healing Circles-Langley and the work being done there. Finally, Michael talks about the theory and process work that has been the heart of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program for decades and is the “curriculum” for the Healing Circles programs developing now. View this video or listen to the podcast.

In part 2, Rachel gives an overview (and some experiences) of the discovery model curriculum for medical students, The Healer’s Art, which is presently taught annually at more than 80 medical schools in the United States and in seven other countries. Rachel has developed this experiential model to create a community of inquiry in which mutual healing, clarification of deep meaning and values, and personal transformation become accessible. Her discovery model philosophy and curriculum design is integral to the work of Commonweal’s new program, Healing Circles. View this video or listen to the podcast.

In part 3, Michael, Rachel, Diana, and Kelly sit together to explore the important pieces of the day, and bring in audience questions. View this video. No podcast is available.

Listen (audio only)

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Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

Rachel was a Professor of Family Medicine at Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine and the Founder and Founding Director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (RISHI), which was at Commonweal for decades and is currently at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. She was one of the best known of the early pioneers of holistic and integrative medicine. As a medical educator, therapist, and teacher, she enabled many thousands of physicians to find individual meaning and purpose in the practice of medicine and thousands of patients to remember their power to heal. More than 30,000 medical students have completed The Healer’s Art, her groundbreaking curriculum for medical students taught at the majority of medical schools in America. A master storyteller and observer of life, her bestselling books Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings have sold more than 2 million copies and have been translated into 21 languages. Rachel had Crohn’s disease for more than 65 years and her work is a unique blend of the wisdom, strength, and viewpoints of both doctor and patient. She died August 8, 2026.

Michael Lerner

Host

Michael is the president emeritus and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work today at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and Commonweal New School. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press).