We Are All Perfectly Fine

A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing

By: Jillian Horton

Narrated by: Wendy Rich Stetson

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.

©2021 Jillian Horton (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

This book is a blessing

It is so refreshing to hear about wellness in medicine from someone who is still in the arena getting her a$$ kicked everyday as she gives her heart to her patients, despite the commodification of both patient and provider that governs medicine in the 21st century in the US ( and apparently Canada). She has no path forward for the system and instead speaks directly to physicians with eloquence and wit. there wasn’t even a single paragraph that I found irritating….. a first for a book addressing physician wellness. Thank you and Bravo!!!!!

Mediocre, repetitive.

The first third of this memoir described how this poor doctor had given up her chance to attend a world renowned writing program and was stuck going to medical school instead. That needed a serious edit. Then the attitude of this doctor, being so unconscious regarding her family who you never hear about through the entire memoir, is very self centered! But she doesn't really care. The book centers on every problem she has had with the medical system, every patient she has lost, every student who looked at her sideways. It's always what about her!!! Blame, blame blame. This was such a dumb book, I do not believe I wasted my time. This doctor needed professional help. Don't buy it. it's just hours of complaining of the hard life she has (not financially obviously) ZERO STARS!

great book but bad narration which is unusual

usuakly wendy rich stetson provides more candid narration.

the book is very well written though