Laurel Braitman is a bestselling author, speaker, educator and trailblazer in the field of medical storytelling. Laurel inspires healing and mental wellness through her books and her work as the Director of Writing and Storytelling at the Stanford School of Medicine. She is author of the memoir What Looks Like Bravery (Simon & Schuster) and the popular science book Animal Madness: Inside their minds. She holds a PhD in Science, Technology and Society from MIT and is the founder of Writing Medicine, a global community of writing healthcare professionals. Her work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Good Morning America and Al Jazeera. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, on Radiolab, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Geographic and other publications.

Laurel lives on her family’s citrus and avocado ranch in Southern California.

Laurel Braitman PhD inspires healing and mental wellness through her bestselling books and her work as the Director of Writing and Storytelling at the Stanford School of Medicine’s Medical Humanities and the Arts Program. 

As a thought leader in mental health, Laurel writes and teaches about healing, grief, and emotional wellbeing for all of us—humans and other animals—as reflected in her New York Times-bestselling Animal Madness and her memoir What Looks Like Bravery, about resilience born from loss.

Laurel encourages those who have experienced loss and other trauma to communicate bravely and vulnerably in service of their own well-being and that of relationships. She has reached millions of people via her workshops, keynote talks, books, and courses, guiding participants to write their own paths toward healing.

Laurel Braitman holds a PhD in Science, Technology and Society from MIT, and is a Senior TED Fellow. Her work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Good Morning America and Al Jazeera. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, on Radiolab, in The Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Geographic and other publications. Laurel splits her time between the remote Alaskan wilderness and her family’s citrus and avocado ranch in Southern California.