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Archive Number 19

Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 14:04:44 EDT
From: Gail Rosen
Subject: Re: The nature of a healing story






In a message dated 4/13/01 10:12:27 AM, andreh@USFAMILY.NET writes:

>I know the telling of a tale can touch someone but I sense creating space
>for people to find and tell their story is at the core of using story as
>a healing art.

I, too, believe in the tremendous healing power of helping people to find and
tell their story. I have found that when I tell/share stories, it helps evoke
the stories of others. Donald Davis says that a story isn't complete when I
tell it - it is completed when your story comes up beside it.
Sometimes, people are reluctant to speak their own experience in a group, but
when a story has been heard by everyone there and so we have all traveled a
bit of the same journey, that shared experience of story becomes a touchstone
and makes it less threatening to speak. And my hope, as well as my
experience, has been that for the many, many people who would never work with
a "therapist" or in any sort of group, just hearing the right story at the
right time can still be tremendously helpful.
Gail Rosen