“We’re not alone...that’s kind of our mission and why we do the work that we do.”

Anu Gorakanti (MD) and Laura Holford (RN) co-founded Introspective Spaces, a collective creating contemplative community spaces for healthcare workers to reconnect with themselves and reimagine a new way forward in healthcare. Now approaching their five-year anniversary, they share how they’re building “small communities of care” across the country—one relationship at a time.

Introspective Spaces on Substack

Listen to a prior podcast with Anu and Laura here!

Key Themes:

* The Power of Slow Work: “Change moves at the speed of trust” (Stephen Covey, via adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy). Building authentic community takes time, and that’s exactly what healthcare needs.

* From Isolation to Connection: Both founders started Introspective Spaces after feeling alone in their moral distress, believing they were the only ones struggling. Their mission: help healthcare workers realize they’re not alone.

* The Imagination Battle: As adrienne maree brown writes, we’re living in someone else’s imagination. Healthcare’s current design is intentional—but healthcare workers can activate their own imagination to create something different.

* Humanizing One Another: “What if humanizing healthcare starts with humanizing one another?” Breaking down silos between physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers can shift the entire culture of care.

Introspective Spaces Programs:

* Artist’s Way cohorts (including a new healthcare parents group) Next cohort begins March 9th!! Sign up here.

* Grief spaces and retreats

* Book clubs using foundational texts like Emergent Strategy

* Building interdisciplinary communities in 5-6 cities nationwide

* Find them in Instagram @IntrospectiveSpaces

Other Resources Mentioned:

* Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

* The Artist’s Way program, based on the book by Julia Cameron

* Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer (Listen to Dr. Reid’s interview with Dr. Palmer here!)

* The Pitt (Max series depicting healthcare moments rarely seen in real life)

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Slowly Building "Small Communities of Care."