Erica Elliott – From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of my Calling. 08 May 2024

From Mountains to Medicine is the second of an autobiographical trilogy describing Erica Elliott’s perilous path in search of her calling, a quest we cannot achieve until we understand who we are. Erica’s father taught her to rock climb and she honed her skills in Ecuador, so the mountains climbed are both literal and psychological.

Father was an American General, and the family moved around. In England Erica had to drop her Yankee accent and speak the Queen’s English. Then she had to learn Texan and thereafter she went to high school in Germany, becoming skilled in mimicry and languages. But who was she and where would she go for higher education?

Creative students touring Europe from Antioch College in Midwest America prompted her decision. The College promoted service and equality but Erica struggled to fit into a challenging experimental environment, where her excellent German education exempted her from many courses and French Romantic literature tempted her to take her own life. Rescued from the oven by a fellow student, she was referred to a black psychotherapist who persuaded her to talk and find herself.

Synchronistically, her psychotherapist graduated at the University of Zurich, her mother’s university. Erica’s challenging relationship with her strict, old-fashioned Swiss mother and their reconciliation are central to her story. Through this damaged ancestral line, she discovers her medical vocation.

Erica’s genuine passion, courage, intelligence, and resilience are awe-inspiring.

Report written by Sue Lewis