“We know from the testimony of both victims and perpetrators that silence makes abuse possible.”
~Loren Neimi and Elizabeth Ellis, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories
We tell our difficult stories to make the world a better place.
In therapy or therapeutic safe space, sharing our raw stories allows us to process emotions, uncover meaning, and find healing. In the act of telling our story and having it witnessed without judgment, we realize that we are not alone.
However, it is the conscious crafting of that story, raising it into a work of art, that brings the healing to others. We move from therapeutic space into performance space.
“In telling a difficult story, the choice to tell is not sufficient unto itself. The source material must be shaped. What matters is the careful and conscious process of making a ‘story’ out of the raw material of our lives. Therapy is coming to understand what happened… Therapy is coming to understand why. Therapy is coming to reframe your beliefs, values, behaviors for yourself. But therapy is not making art.”
~Loren Neimi and Elizabeth Ellis, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories
Story is art
“Story is art…. Story is about crafting the facts, what is said and what is not said, to make the meaning of an experience clear. Story as art is about integrating the world of what happens with … why it does so. For art to be therapeutic, it first and foremost must be the conscious creation of order out of the chaos for the sake of meaning.”
~Loren Neimi and Elizabeth Ellis, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories
In telling the difficult story, we take pain and craft it through story into art. When we create beauty out of pain, we find meaning in the chaos, and we create hope for ourselves and our listeners. To create hope is to create healing.
We tell our difficult stories to make the world a better place.
Steps to Telling the Difficult Story
- Step 1: Find the safe space to tell your story.
- Step 2: Find the courage to tell your story in that safe space.
- Step 3: Find healing. From the present moment, with the perspective of time and accumulated life experience, process the emotions and find meaning in your story.
- Step 4: Craft your story into a work of art to bring that healing message to others.
Join me in an upcoming storytelling workshop (Oct/Nov 2020) as we explore ways to consciously create the safe space for story and ways to craft your story into art. Visit StorytellingMedicine.com
