The Charlotte Center presents The Forum featuring Allison Bickett, Ph.D.

Participate in the important questions of our time. The Forum is a conversation and speaker series that brings people together to explore challenges and opportunities that affect human flourishing through the lens of the humanities and civic imagination.

Please join us for the November 16, 2021 gathering of The Forum featuring Allison Bickett, Ph.D., on "The Art of Medicine." Allison is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and the Director of Behavioral Medicine Education for the Carolinas Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program at Atrium Health.

In this forum, we will explore how medical education is incorporating the humanities to increase empathy, awareness, and sensitivity in patient care. We'll learn how art analysis is changing the practice of medicine. We'll consider how Visual Thinking Strategies can help everyone expand their creativity, flexible thinking, and personal resiliency. Our setting will be the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.

Our society rewards efficiency, speed, productivity. Medicine in particular is under pressure to do it fast and get it right. Standardize it, protocolize it, make it an algorithm. Sometimes that’s appropriate, if not necessary. But it also has led us away from healing and the art of living…paying attention, noticing beauty, listening well, sitting with ambiguity.

Allison will share how she helps physicians use art analysis to process the emotions evoked in the practice of medicine, and experience greater joy, calm, and sense of engagement. We will consider how this approach might benefit all persons and the community at large.

Allison creates and disseminates the Behavioral Medicine curriculum for the Family Medicine residents and faculty at Atrium Health, with the goal of equipping physicians with a working knowledge on mental health assessment, treatment and brief counseling in the primary care setting. She also oversees a robust Behavioral Health Integration program in the department, whereby Doctoral and Master’s students in Psychology and Counseling provide mental health care for primary care patients, free of charge. Allison’s current research explores perinatal mental health and the relationship between mental health and chronic disease – particularly type 2 diabetes and HIV.

One of her most treasured roles is co-facilitating “The Art of Medicine” for medical students, physicians, and advanced practice providers across all departments at Atrium Health. "The Art of Medicine" is a novel collaboration between Atrium Health and the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art which combines art analysis with a group session to process the challenging emotions of being a physician.

Allison received her Master’s degree in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience from the University of Texas, and began her career as a research analyst for the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Research. She received a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology from UNC Charlotte, where she discovered the importance of assessment and intervention for mental health in primary care. Allison holds appointments as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine and Atrium Health.

Connect. Consider. Ignite. The program runs from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time including time for conversation, connections, and Q&A.

The Forum has a three-part structure:

• First third: Participants connect and build relationships in small break-out groups prompted by a question;

• Middle third: Participants consider a presentation by our guest speaker that ends with the speaker posing a community-facing question;

• Final third: Participants discuss the question, igniting new ideas and interactions.

At the conclusion of the program, guests are invited to the fourth floor gallery to experience the Bechtler Museum's newest installation: Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi - A Marvelous Engagement - an immersive, multilayered film exhibition examining Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi.

THE HUMANITIES | Languages | Literature | History | Philosophy | Religion | And More

Event ticket is $20. This is an in-person event with limited seating. There will be a cash bar for drinks and light snacks in the Bechtler Museum lobby.

Location: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 S. Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC, 28202

COVID Safety: All guests are required to wear masks. Guests agree to abide by safety protocols in place at the time of the event.

The Charlotte Center is a community forum and civic action catalyst that invites people into meaningful connection and problem-solving informed by deep consideration of the human experience. Our mission is to help people and communities flourish.

The Charlotte Center is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. We are supported by individual donors, grants, sponsorships, and revenue from our programs. We invite you to join us.

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