Carolyn Phillips

Biography

Carolyn S. Phillips is a nurse scientist, educator, intervention developer, and musician whose work integrates expressive arts, music-based interventions, and healthcare research to strengthen emotional communication, resilience, cognitive health, and well-being. Her research program draws on more than two decades of experience as an oncology nurse and nurse practitioner, along with advanced postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. She developed Storytelling Through Music, an intervention combining reflective writing, storytelling, mind–body skills, and personalized songwriting, which she has implemented with oncology nurses, bereaved parents, and social workers serving people experiencing homelessness to support emotional processing, meaning-making, connection, and psychosocial well-being. She also developed Music-4-MS (NIH/NINR 1R21NR022143-01), a 12-week, home-based ukulele-learning intervention designed to improve cognitive and psychosocial outcomes for people with multiple sclerosis. Across this work, Dr. Phillips advances accessible arts-based approaches for people living with chronic illness and loss, family caregivers, and healthcare professionals experiencing grief, emotional labor, and burnout.

Bringing a deep understanding of the emotional and relational dimensions of healthcare into her research and teaching, Dr. Phillips teaches Communication in Healthcare Settings to undergraduate nursing students. Drawing on her research on burnout and well-being among nurses, she developed an emotional intelligence curriculum that integrates therapeutic communication, emotional awareness and regulation, reflective practice, trauma-informed debriefing, interpersonal effectiveness, professional identity formation, and strategies for sustaining compassionate care.