Workshop Participants Embody Holistic Care

S. Ama Wray, PhD, led an Embodiology® Workshop focused on holistic care, integrating movement, music, poetry and medicine.

“I am the patient’s first dose of medicine.” Around 50 participants repeated this mantra to the interwoven patterns of drums, piano and the kora, invoking African communication practices of call and response during an introductory workshop on Embodiology®. The workshop, held May 8, 2025, was led by S. Ama Wray, PhD, a professor of dance in the UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts and an affiliate faculty member of Programs in Medical Education Leadership Education to Advance Diversity - African, Black and Caribbean (PRIME LEAD-ABC). Wray focused not only on the physician-patient relationship but also more broadly on holistic healthcare.

“We often talk about the idea of the mind-body split, but there are some cultures in the world where there is no mind-body split,” Wray told the crowd, referencing the West African principles at the root of the methodology she developed to elevate human vitality, well-being and creativity. She also brought up organ-transplant patients with traits or memories from the person whose organ they received. “How does that work?” she asked, allowing a moment for people to ponder. “We’re finding our way back to being whole.”

A Workshop on Embodiology®

The event was the first of a new series offered through the UC Irvine School of Medicine’s Medical Humanities and Arts Program, led by Juliet McMullin, PhD. The series is supported through the Dr. Frank L. Meyskens & Linda Meyskens Medical Humanities and Arts Workshop Endowment.

“The purpose of the Meyskens gift is to support medical humanities and arts broadly with involvement ranging from care of the patient and generation of empathy, courage and joy, through to restoring mind-body awareness,” said Meyskens, founding director emeritus of the UC Irvine Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also spoke during the workshop about the need for self-care. “There are so many in our field who are burning out, and we need to find ways to keep them in.”

Wray addressed this concern with a secondary but complementary mantra as a follow-up to the “dose of medicine” refrain: “I am a shield for my well-being.”

Surprised by the high levels of burnout in the medical profession, Wray hopes to help create a culture of care. “We need to bake into the structure of their learning a self-care that’s allied and deeply connected to not just their own longevity and well-being but that also of their patients,” she says. “It needs to be part of the pedagogy and professional outlook.”

A poetry reading at the workshop by reelaviolette botts-ward, PhD, a healing artist and author of mourning my [inner blackgirl] child, further spoke to this need.

“It was my granny, Ethel Mae, who taught me that whole person pedagogy is the very first step to training future doctors.” Her soothing voice, in harmony with the improvisational musicians surrounding her, embodied this message of empathetic healing and connection. “Care in the medical classroom informs how we curate care within the clinic, within medical institutions and beyond.”

Promoting Holistic Care

Chalat Rajaram, an associate professor at UC Irvine who teaches palliative care and spirituality, has witnessed the power of intertwining poetry and music in medicine in assisted-living settings. “There were patients with dementia who were sitting still, with no interaction, and as we read poetry and played music, some of them actually started dancing, tapping their toes and moving their hands,” he says. “At the end, one otherwise nonverbal patient asked, ‘Can you play that again?’”

He plans to incorporate elements of Embodiology® into his work. “S. Ama Wray brought us all together, from undergraduate students to nurses, staff and physicians. Everyone was one unit,” he says. “We need to bring that collective energy to everything we do.”

Aja Trotter, PsyD, attended the workshop during her first week on the job as a senior staff psychologist at the UC Irvine Counseling Center. “I so appreciated the movement, improvisation and creativity that Dr. Wray beautifully wove into teaching about holistic care,” says Trotter. She also appreciated that this wasn’t a typical academic lecture.

Set in a spacious, outdoor environment at The Commons at UCI Research Park, the workshop invited engagement. “It’s hard to convey with words, but we were able to dance, feel and embody the experience of ‘being the patient’s first dose of medicine,’” says Trotter.

Claudia Davis, PhD, an associate professor of teaching in the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, is also exploring how to share her workshop experience with others. “I’m considering how to translate elements of Embodiology® into my work with breast cancer survivors in the community,” says Davis. “The interconnection of expressive physical movement and purposeful music, whilst potentially enhancing well-being, seems plausible and may be of benefit for breast cancer survivors.”

Wray is grateful for the support from the Meyskens and for the level of engagement during the workshop. “There was complete 100% participation ... I think the students were pretty astounded,” she says, referring to the medical students who attended from her elective medical improv course. “They felt that sense of belonging; everybody was at ease,” says Wray. “It was really great for them to see and to affirm the areas of research that we are moving toward whilst looking through the lens of art and its medicinal healing capacity.”

Watch this short video of the event and visit embodiology.com to learn more.