Meet Hannah Hutchinson Clarke, MPH

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hannah Hutchinson Clarke, MPH a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, so excited to have you with us today and we are really interested in hearing your thoughts about how folks can develop their empathy? In our experience, most folks want to be empathic towards others, but in a world where we are often only surrounded by people who are very similar to us, it can sometimes be a challenge to develop empathy for others who might not be as similar to us. Any thoughts or advice?

My empathy was born out of profound loss. When my mom was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia at the age of 56, two weeks before my college graduation and two months before I was set to start medical school, I suffered a deep grief. I didn’t know how to move forward, I didn’t know how to experience my emotions, and I didn’t know how to cope with what I had just lost. My mom had been changing before her diagnosis, but what getting diagnosed confirmed was that what I had lost would never be recovered. Grieving the past compounded with grieving the present and the future.

Going through that experience has grown my empathy immensely. I have become so much more cognizant of how impactful family life can be on one’s overall functioning, and the phrase “family first” has an entirely new meaning for me. While I may have understood that concept intellectually, I didn’t really start getting it until dementia took my mom from me. Now, I do what I can to support and encourage the value of family.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Marsha Linehan says, “No life is not worth living. But what is important is that you experience your life as worth living—one that is satisfying, and one that brings happiness.”

My dream is to build a life worth living. For me, that means educating, reading, writing, acting, gardening, and, most importantly, taking care of my mom so that her last years are lived with the dignity she deserves.

I’m currently in my last year of medical school but after graduating, I’m leaving medicine to pursue my dream. I have found that you can be good at something, but it may not be your calling. You can have a calling, but it may not be your only calling. Pursuing medicine would mean giving up all of my other “callings” (for at least several years), including being a caregiver for my mother for whom time is not on our side. I feel fortunate that there are many paths outside of medicine that I would find so fulfilling and that would allow me to honor my values. I am leaving my options open since my interests are broad. I could combine my love for educating, writing, and acting and work on children’s educational media projects. I could combine my love for educating and reading and become a community college professor. I could become a public health professional, a researcher, a high school teacher! The options excite me, and it feels good to be excited about my future.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Resilience: When I first started my grief journey, I never would have believed I would be giving keynotes and sitting on panels about dementia. That first year, I could hardly utter my mom’s diagnosis without breaking down. Now, it is the subject of most of my writings, I speak about it freely in conversation, and I engage in frontotemporal dementia advocacy. Ultimately, this boils down to my resilience. Despite the hardships I have faced and that I continue to face, I have proven to myself time and time again that I can return to baseline, albeit a new baseline. Grief and loss has changed me. And I accept that I will not be the same after hardship, I accept that what I call my “baseline” will shift. That’s resilience.

Confidence: As I dove headfirst into this grief journey, I lost a great deal of confidence. I felt that I was too emotional to trust my own intuition. However, as time went by I experienced a series of challenges—mostly related to the demands of my academic program compounded by the demands of life—that forced me to clarify my values. I had to decide what my goals and aspirations would be; what was most important to me; and how I wanted my life to look. I realized that I have a limited amount of energy and it is up to me to choose how and where I distribute that energy. Once I struggled through that, I was able to trust my intuition and make decisions for myself with confidence. Now, I am sure of myself; I am proud of the person I have become. And I know my mom is, too, though she can’t express it.

Exploration: Developing a personal sense of confidence also gave me the confidence to explore. I’ve been teaching health education for 8 years, but I never had the chance to teach traditional subjects in a classroom setting – now I’m a substitute teacher and private tutor and I get to teach all the time! I wanted to explore the world of children’s media so I interned on a health education show and loved every minute of it. I even got to explore my emotions by joining a community of other young adult caregivers in a virtual FTD support group. Importantly, all of these explorations are tied to real, tangible skills I’ve been able to develop: managing a classroom, working one-on-one with students; writing preschool educational content; recording and editing voiceover; marketing my work; self-advocacy; and communicating with others who are going through similar hardships without either of us becoming re-traumatized (that IS a skill!). In other words, I have become a better, more well-rounded person in the spirit of exploration!

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

I read Marsha Linehan’s memoir “Building a Life Worth Living” for a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) clinical elective I took in this final year of medical school. Linehan developed DBT especially for people who struggle with emotional dysregulation, but I find the lessons and skills to be helpful for anyone wanting to build a life worth living. Reading this book became an impetus for me to create conditions in my life that would support my joy, growth, and personal development. My life in recent years has been filled with heartache for reasons beyond my control. But there are so many aspects of my life well within my control that I can use to cope with the more painful elements. For me, this means living according to my values; nourishing my body with preservative-free meals I cooked (or baked) myself; moving my body mindfully and intentionally; gardening and developing my relationship with nature; strengthening my friendships and familial relationships; and growing in my relationship with God.

In the past 12 months, these principles have been my guide. I must say, it feels good having principles to live by.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-clarke-mph
• Youtube: @hannahclarkemph9209