We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christine Gibson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I took was to ask myself… “What Else?”

I’ve been a physician since I was 27 years old; the training and apprenticeship were consuming. Overwhelming. Once I began working in the hospital, there was 80+ hour work weeks. Stress and exhaustion. It wasn’t conducive to adding much to my plate.

But I was traveling. A lot. For work and for play.

This reminded me that I was more. More than a physician, a helper, a caregiver.

Also that the world was so much bigger. And that the job had opened my eyes to those stories. I work with many newcomers, specifically at our refugee clinic in Calgary. I’ve learned so much about resilience, survival, and family through their lens. In my overseas work, I’ve seen the medical school at Patan Academy in Nepal overcome the series of earthquakes firsthand in 2015; their strong connection of trust and accountability with community made them the leaders in the response.

I’ve studied psychology, social innovation, climate impacts on health, tropical disease. All for fun. Well, the medical education was a Masters. Recently, I undertook a Doctorate – in Transdisciplinary Studies.

This was my academic introduction to – What Else.

How could I take the humanistic lessons from medical practice, add my business work running a nonprofit (Global Familymed Foundation), a brief cooperative (Healing Centred Coop), and co-founding my first company (Safer Spaces Training), and sprinkle in the varied aspects I’d been learning?

What I learned was that I could take risks, fail, and emerge again. This is the adaptive cycle of social innovation, described to me in the Getting to Maybe residency with Frances Westley. She told us that the natural cycle of attempted stability always leads to release, reorganization, and reemergence.

So now I’m not afraid. I will explore as much as I can, within this transdisciplinary iterative model. I will attempt growth and maintenance of my work. I will write unpublished pieces, then a book will be bought – The Modern Trauma Toolkit is a primer on trauma and toxic stress. I will create an organization and it will fall apart spectacularly, teaching me lessons and humility. And I will succeed. Briefly, spectacularly. I will create something meaningful, designed to help at the systems level. Then it, too, will release.

“What else” helps me frame myself outside of a singular silo. That I am more than a physician, or a writer, or a humanitarian, or an entrepreneur.

“Take a risk” helps me understand that life is a risk. If you focus on purpose and connection, the work will always reemerge. It will matter.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Christine Gibson, a physician in Calgary, Canada and author of The Modern Trauma Toolkit. As a 2xTEDx and international speaker, I love to share with audiences how to manage toxic stress and how to nurture a path to post-traumatic growth. I’m also on social media as an educator, with >130k on Tiktok as “tiktoktraumadoc.”

My company Safer Spaces training runs workshops, and soon asynchronous trainings, on psychological safety in the workplace. We also teach about safer communication strategies, psychological first aid, and trauma-informed spaces. Our activities are inherently inclusive, interactive, and enjoyable. Our core team includes those with expertise in psychology, health care, and business so we look at both the individual and the system where trauma happens.

Both work and education have focused on health equity; my current clinical work is in refugee health and addiction medicine as a trauma therapist. I created a residency in Health Equity, completed a Masters in Medical Education, and a Doctorate in Transdisciplinary Studies.

Learn more about my speaking and work here: www.ChristineGibson.net
about our company at: www.SaferSpacesTraining.com
and my book here: www.ModernTrauma.com

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I went into medicine because my mom told me that I could use what I learn to do other things. She was right.

Through learning about health journeys, I have created a Cooperative and studied many other kinds of healing – from Qigong and Ayurvedic counselling to trauma therapy and psychedelics.

Through learning about global health, I was able to do academic consulting in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Laos. My company, Global Familymed Foundation, supports family medicine training in Uganda.

And understanding the patients’ journey through the health care system led me to study social innovation and design thinking strategies, as a way to tackle wicked problems. I know I’m not yet done on my entrepreneurial journey and what i learned as a physician has been my guide.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In 2015, I was stuck in Nepal during the massive earthquakes. Alone in the Kathmandu valley, my apartment stayed relatively intact. And I was not sure what to do. When I went outside, community were looking after the ones in unsafe dwellings or newly unhoused. The emergency department had an elaborate triage system, and since I’m not a surgeon and can’t speak Nepali, my skills were not useful.

This taught me the power of community. That we don’t solve complex problems in isolation.

My resilience has been in learning not to do things alone. That I am not the solution, but WE might be.

I returned to Nepal to work at the Patan medical academy for two further visits. Stayed in the same apartment. But I began to study trauma and its impacts.

Now I run a company, Safer Spaces Training, that manages psychological safety at work. My book, The Modern Trauma Toolkit, has reached a wide audience of people facing toxic stress. My understanding of the impacts of trauma – from childhood events, to natural disasters, to daily discrimination – is being taught on my social media channels.

My aim is to build community resilience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ChristineGibson.net
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gibtrotterMD
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-gibson-md/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GibtrotterMD
• Other: Book site www.ModernTrauma.com

  Company site www.SaferSpacesTraining.com

  Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktoktraumadoc?lang=en

Image Credits

Alina Gvritishvili