Meet Kaitlin Curtice: Storytelling as Medicine

For Kaitlin Curtice, healing begins with connection—connection to ourselves, to one another, and to Mother Earth. A citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and someone of Celtic descent, her work is rooted in storytelling, kinship, and the belief that writing and gathering can be forms of medicine.

As part of Kripalu’s Amplify Voices of the Global Majority series, Kaitlin brings a thoughtful and deeply human perspective to questions of grief, belonging, and collective healing. Through her books, retreats, and conversations, she invites people to practice presence in uncertain times and to remember that healing happens most powerfully in relationship—with our bodies, our communities, and the world around us.

1. Can you share a bit about your work and what guides it?

I’ve been an author, public speaker, guide, and facilitator for about a decade now, and there are really three things that guide my work: learning how we can better care for ourselves, one another, and Segmekwe, or Mother Earth. All three of these are deeply connected to one another, and in my books, retreats, and online or in-person events, I always want us to leave the space feeling more connected.

2. What guides, traditions or lineages most shape the way you approach this work?

I am a citizen of the Potawatomi nation and also someone of Celtic descent. The lineage of storytelling, kinship with the earth, and connection to our languages and cultures has always guided me, and shapes how I approach my writing as a form of medicine, and how I approach holding space with others as we ask how we can be people who practice kinship in deeper ways.

3. What feels most important for people to understand about this work right now?

We are in a time in which we are desperately longing for answers and for healing. We are encountering a liminal and visceral time in history, and it is difficult to know what’s on the other side of all of this. My work is about helping us hold space in the liminality, to practice presence there, and to honor the grief and the wounds that we are dealing with—personal and collective wounds that we can tend to in community. I think we really need that right now.

4. What do you hope people carry with them after spending time with you in Amplify?

I hope after spending time with me in our Amplify session that people carry a deeper connection to their own bodies, stories, griefs, and joys, and that it leads them to embrace their own communities with that same medicine of kinship and connection. I hope they feel connected to their own sacred imaginations and dreams for future generations.