Jillian Horton

Dr. Jillian Horton is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Health Sciences Centre and the University of Manitoba. She is a graduate of McMaster medical school and completed her residency and fellowship in general internal medicine at the University of Toronto. She also holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in English literature from Western University, where she completed her thesis in creative writing under the late Stan Dragland. Her writing about medicine appears regularly in the LA Times, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Maclean’s, and on the CBC and a variety of American news outlets by syndication. She also hosts the novel series Arts, Medicine, Life at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Dr. Horton is a sought-after speaker and teacher of mindfulness for clinicians, both nationally and internationally.

Twitter: @JillianHortonMD

“Brilliant” – Alan Alda

FESTIVAL BOOK

We are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing

When we need help, we count on doctors to put us back together. But what happens when doctors fall apart?

Funny, fresh, and deeply affecting, We Are All Perfectly Fine is the story of a married mother of three on the brink of personal and professional collapse who attends rehab with a twist: a meditation retreat for burned-out doctors.

Jillian Horton, a general internist, has no idea what to expect during her five-day retreat at Chapin Mill, a Zen centre in upstate New York. She just knows she desperately needs a break. At first, she is deeply uncomfortable with the spartan accommodations, silent meals, and scheduled bonding sessions. But as the group struggles through awkward first encounters and guided meditations, something remarkable happens: world-class surgeons, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and general practitioners open up and share stories about their secret guilt and grief, as well as their deep-seated fear of falling short of the expectations that define them. Jillian realizes that her struggle with burnout is not so much personal as it is the result of a larger system failure, and that compartmentalizing your most difficult emotions – a coping strategy that is drilled into doctors – is not useful unless you face these emotions too.

Jillian Horton throws open a window onto the flawed system that shapes medical professionals, revealing the rarely acknowledged stresses that lead doctors to depression and suicide, and emphasizing the crucial role of compassion not only in treating others, but also in taking care of ourselves.

GET THE BOOK

Owl’s Nest Books (Calgary) | Calgary Public Library

BE CURIOUSER

Op-Ed: As a doctor on Mash, Hawkeye showed me how to get through this war on the coronavirus -Los Angeles Times
Literary mentor Stan Dragland a champion of Canadian writers –Toronto Star