Hi everyone! My name is Marcie and I’m a rising fourth-year psychology major with a minor in social work at Pitt. On track to become a clinical psychologist, a career that feels tied to one basic thing – understanding people. Any conversation I have with a client will start with their story, and that’s exactly why I was drawn to this program. 

Narrative Medicine teaches you that listening isn’t just hearing what someone says. It’s learning how to interpret it, how to make sense of it, and how to honor those lived accounts people share about their life. As someone who wants to spend their career helping others get through hard moments, I want to be the kind of clinician who notices the entire person, not only a diagnosis. I’m interested in exploring how Dutch medical history managed to balance scientific discovery alongside human care, and how those lessons could influence the way I approach mental health care going forward.  

Amsterdam is the right kind of setting to ask those questions. During the Dutch Golden Age (and, still today) it has been a hub for scientific innovation, medicine, art, and cultural exchange. One of the parts that excited me most about this program is that our classroom doesn’t stop at four walls. We’ll be traveling through the Netherlands, researching in places like the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave and Museum Vrolik, using museums, historical sites, and the city itself to understand how science connects back to the humanities. I’m excited to immerse myself in a place where those two worlds naturally meet.

Throughout my psychology courses, I’ve learned to study human behavior through research and evidence based practice. Being here gives me the chance to look at those same ideas from another angle. I’ll be able to explore how medicine and psychology are rooted in storytelling. Patients and clients don’t tend to lay out their lives in a tidy, chronological way. Instead, they offer scattered memories, feelings, and experiences that get shaped by culture, history, and identity. Learning how to better understand those narratives is just as important as understanding any diagnosis.  

Part of this experience will be learning my way around Amsterdam’s canals, figuring out public transportation, and embracing life in a new country. I’m excited to step outside of my academic comfort zone. I hope this experience helps me bridge what often feels like two separate worlds: science and the humanities. By combining psychology, history, literature, and medicine, I want to better understand how ideas about humanity, normalcy, and healing have been changing over time.  

As a future clinician, building real relationships with clients will be at the center of everything I do. I hope this experience strengthens my ability to notice the small details in people’s stories, understand how bigger systems influence individual well being, and approach each person with curiosity, empathy, and compassion. Outside the classroom, I’m excited to explore the Netherlands, become self-reliant, and experience a culture that’s known for its openness, and tolerance.

When I return to Oakland, I hope to carry a broader view, not just a clean summary, a deeper sense of the human stories in health and illness, and a larger knowledge base to become the psychologist I wish to be. This whole experience feels like it is about questioning myself the entire way through my thinking, like watching how I learn and how I grow. And I look forward to seeing what happens when I keep exploring the overlaps between books, bones, and bodies, because it will change the way I care for people in the future.