Joe’s Story This is my story about Joe, whose name has been changed. He is a person who lived with schizophrenia. He received his mental health treatment in the STEP Clinic at the University of North Carolina Department of Psychiatry, where I worked from 1995–2012. …

On March 8, 2013, I gave a talk for a Faith Connections conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. …

Part 3: A Home (from summer 2012) Today the quiet woman moved into her new apartment. And she smiled, and laughed, and told me that she was starting her life anew. She ran into an old friend at her new apartment complex, and neighbors greeted her with friendly hellos. She…

Part 2: Sorrow Sometimes my heart breaks. I hear sad stories from my clients frequently, and I can sit with suffering. As a therapist, I know that my ability to be present with a person’s pain is a gift, and sometimes my presence is all that I can offer…

She invited me in — Gave me tea and we talked. She spoke of spectral visits on the astral plane And of her healing powers. She offered them to me — was I sick? Did I need healing? It was a gift I yearned to take, but declined. And then — She reached out, and she raged. Cursing me, and all of us. Powerless to ease her mind — And yet so much awe at her beauty. She slept then/no more waking. I wept.

Part 1: Connection As a psychotherapist, it can be tricky to write about your clients. A few years ago, I decided that I would only write about clients I had worked with who had died. I had to find a way to tell their stories, because they were my stories…

A fire and an explosion on the UNC campus. A professor is injured, the Davie poplar is scorched, and a young man’s life is changed forever. When I read about the recent events on campus, I wondered if the perpetrator might have a mental illness. …