About Dr. Kosinski
Lauren Kosinski, MD, MS
I would like to help you not only find your way but in doing so, also contribute to defining the next way.
My Story
Medicine has captivated me for 50 years. It began with studying the 5 senses in 4th grade, which was like discovering a secret garden, a gateway to a hidden world of understanding who and what we are, a place of mystery and wonder. It built over decades and became an anchor of my identity, through medical education, surgical training, rural general surgery practice, and eventually academic subspecialty surgery practice, culminating now in my work with other physicians and our profession, which sorely need healing as I did (and do) myself.
Medicine has been my “golden ticket” for a front row seat at the Table of Life. Every day reveals something new, both in the particular, sublime, messy, and magnificent details of a single life and about our culture expressed through the lives and stories of individual people, stories that unfold through the course of care. In relation to patients, I have striven to earn trust and respect by holding each life and human spirit as precious, through humility, and by dedicating myself to the wise, graceful application of the tools of science to the art of living.
In 2013, I came to an impasse and realized my life in medicine and work in hospitals were starving my soul and bore little resemblance to what I had sought in my career. The structure of practice increasingly devalued that very terms of my physician code and purpose. I decided to do something about it. What started as a sabbatical year to create a business model for a holistic approach to perioperative surgical care became a much larger quest, more like a pilgrimage. I would like to help you not only find your way but in doing so, also contribute to defining the next way. Being a doctor is arduous but delivers richness that is a daily gift. I believe this gift is ours to claim.
Currently I live in Switzerland where I am studying the work of Carl Jung in the world’s only full-time, immersive Jungian psychology program. This has been a significant complement to my work and ideas about finding integrity and alignment in Medicine. In addition to creating and operating Metamorphosis Medicine, I am the executive director of a small surgical research foundation. I live in townhouse built in the 1820’s, upstairs from my incredibly kind Swiss hosts who treat me and my 3 dogs and cat like family members. When I talk with doctors, I am often looking out over terra cotta rooftops in this medieval village.
Rarely easy, never dull!
What is Metamorphosis Medicine?
Metamorphosis Medicine was conceived as a resource to help physicians to realize personal and professional transformation.
The fundamental premise is that the transformation of medicine begins one doctor at a time making one small change at a time. We regularly underestimate the power of this. In the lineage of healing arts and our call to this profession, each of us encodes and expresses the “DNA of Medicine,” which for all of human history has intrinsically valued life, strived to alleviate suffering, and recognized the power of interconnection. Though Medicine often focuses on treating illness, its greatest expression lies in helping people flourish through the precious cycle of life, the thing we value above everything else. Here is where sacred intention dwells, how through this service we become part of something larger that helps create a sense of meaning in our work.
How do we do this?
DEVELOP AND SHARE MEDICINE’S MISSING CURRICULUM.
This includes the wisdom and practices that help us understand and navigate the most challenging aspects of practice—things like failure, isolation, fatigue, anger, disillusionment, or fear. The Missing Curriculum helps us know how to be doctors, not just know what to do as doctors.
EQUATE OUR SUCCESS IN PRACTICE AS HOW WE THRIVE THROUGH OUR SERVICE AND ARE THE LIVING PROOF OF OUR METHODOLOGY.
Our wellbeing as physicians should be enhanced through our work, not despite it. When this isn’t the case, something is wrong.
WRITE AND IMPLEMENT A PERSONAL PRACTICE PRESCRIPTION
This requires individually rebalancing the 3 pillars of medicine (intellectual engagement, prosperity, and soul journey) then translating our priorities into incremental, actionable steps that understand the context of corporate healthcare but are not limited by it. With the help of the Missing Curriculum and support of like-minded colleagues, we can craft our personal practice prescription to authentically align our own dynamic, evolving experience of medicine and life with what we offer our patients.