Welcome! I’m Deborah Bayer, writer and workshop facilitator.
I am (mostly) retired from the practice of Infectious Disease and Palliative Care. I write poems and personal essays, and I’m working on a memoir about the need for emotional support in the workplace.
I facilitate writing groups via Zoom. These groups blend the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) methodology with the Narrative Medicine workshop format.
Visit my Shop to see the upcoming workshops.
A Rope Made of Bandages
Poems by Deborah Bayer
AWA Workshops
The supportive approach of the AWA method lends itself to healing from all kinds of trauma, including the trauma of medical training.
Stay Connected
My Substack newsletter, Healers Write, Writers Heal is published biweekly.
Blog Archive
K is for Kindness
Thoughtful Kindness I used to precept medical trainees in Ambulatory Palliative Care clinic. Once, a Resident relayed a patient request to me. I don’t remember the details. The patient could have been asking for a medication for pain or anxiety, or they could have...
J is for Journal
Writing Every Day The word journal comes from the Latin diurnal which means daily. I’ve already covered Dailiness under my D post, but exploring the derivation of the root -jour- brings me to enticing words. Words like adjourn (to suspend a meeting to a future...
I Make My Team Cry
(An excerpt from my memoir-in-progress) The Hospice Medical Director role gave me an excuse to bring poetry into my work as a physician. I selected a poem to begin every weekly meeting, sometimes one of my own. One day I read a poem by Mark Doty, “The Embrace,”...