Interview Series: Jennifer Crystal, Author, Educator, and Writing Coach

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Interview Series: Jennifer Crystal, Author, Educator, and Writing Coach

Issue #40 of “What’s Her Problem?”: "One Tick Stopped the Clock" for Lyme disease Warrior Jennifer Crystal, who advocates for others with chronic illness and uses writing to heal.

Debra Rafson and Write Your Life

May 15, 2026

∙ Paid

On the left, a woman with shoulder-length straight brown hair. It is author, educator, and writing coach Jennifer Crystal. She is smiling and wears a white button-down shirt, silver pendant necklace with a turquoise stone and matching turquoise earrings. In the background are green grass and green trees. On the right is the cover of Jennifer's book, "One Tick Stopped the Clock," which features the face of a clock, and a tick appears to be climbing up the hand of the clock. — Left: Author, educator, and writing coach Jennifer Crystal. Right: Jennifer’s second book, "One Tick Stopped the Clock."

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This is the 4^th episode of the “What’s Her Problem?” Interview Series. I hope you enjoy it and would love to hear your feedback!

Note: Closed captioning and the full transcript are available after you click through to the video.

Next Friday, you will receive a “From the Archives” issue in your inbox since it’s the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, and I’ll be back to new posts on Friday, May 29^th.

I had such a wonderful conversation with my fourth Interview Series guest, Jennifer Crystal. And now it’s time for you to listen in! We talked about a number of issues in chronic illness, through the lens of her journey with Lyme disease: the importance of patients being listened to and believed; managing family dynamics; friendship; writing to heal; and identity. Jennifer was even kind enough to do a reading from a pivotal scene in Chapter 8 of her book, One Tick Stopped the Clock.

Jennifer Crystal is an author, educator, and writing coach who is passionate about the transformative power of personal narrative. She runs the Writing to Heal Program at Grub Street Creative Writing Center, and also runs monthly creative writing meetups for Health Story Collaborative. For more than a decade, she has been a weekly columnist for the Global Lyme Alliance, and her work on Lyme and other long-haul illnesses has been published in the Boston Globe, Aeon’s Psyche, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, and many other outlets. She is a senior writer and patient experience representative at Harvard Health Publishing. Learn more at www.jennifercrystal.com.

I encourage you to go buy One Tick Stopped the Clock, which served as the basis of our conversation. As bestselling author Susannah Cahalan, author of Brain on Fire, wrote, it is “A harrowing memoir told with humor and grace. This book will be a rallying cry for millions of people struggling with ‘invisible’ illnesses.”

As a reminder, the Interview Series episodes are a perk for Paid Subscribers and Open-Hearted Supporters, which are the highest tier of Paid Subscription. So, for those of you who are currently Free Subscribers or you haven’t subscribed yet, you will be able to watch the interview up to a certain point, but the remainder will be paywalled. If you still want to access the interview, you do have free options:

If you aren’t subscribed to “What’s Her Problem?” yet, become a Free Subscriber now.
- Once you are a Free Subscriber, you can “Claim Your Free Post” at the bottom of this post.
Anyone can sign up for a 7-Day Free Trial of “What’s Her Problem?”
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- Note: To redeem and start your free trial, you must choose a subscription option (Monthly or Annual) and enter your credit card details. You will have 7 days to access the current episode (and all previous episodes of the Interview Series) before your card will be charged for a subscription. You can cancel at any time.

However, the best way to access the Interview Series is to become a Paid Subscriber. It takes a lot of time and work to put each issue of this publication together, in writing, audio, and/or video. I invite you to take the leap to a Paid Subscription, if you haven’t already, to support my ability to continue sharing these important topics and stories with you.

Thank you for your support! Enjoy my chat with Jennifer Crystal!

Each issue of “What’s Her Problem?” includes questions for further discussion. Leave a comment below!

This week’s questions:

Have you tried writing as a way to heal? How has your own identity or the dynamics of your family shifted as a result of chronic illness?