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Archive Number 3552 | ||
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Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 17:01:02 -0800
MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thanks Ann for the important reminder about the safety of the listeners as well as the tellers. And just for clarification, when the graduates 'tell their story" at graduation, while those stories often refer to a past of violence or abuse or addiction, they never describe those experiences in detail. When the women "tell their stories" they are claiming their identities, past, present, and future, and working with a bigger canvas than a single pattern of past experience. joan From: To: Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 4:19 PM Subject: Re: [HEALINGSTORY] Healing Story Question > Thank you everyone for this conversation. The question David asks is central > in the lives of most of my clients in the field of domestic violence and > sexual assault. Central to my task is intuiting how best to receive these > stories. Over differing amounts of time the stories do emerge, although in vastly > differing degrees of detail and clarity. As the tellers are repeatedly > encouraged and validated for surviving terrifying circumstances, gradual tangible > healing occurs. There are even circumstances when a client, once cowed with grief > and shame, eventuallly decides she wants to tell her story publicly. This is > usually in the name of breaking the silence and in the hope of empowering > other survivors. > It goes without saying that safety has to be the first consideration: the > safety of the teller, of course, and the safety of the audience. In these public > "telling our story" forums counselors are always identified before the > stories begin, so that any audience triggered by what they hear will have support. > The ideal hope is that through the telling, survivors truly do observe > themselves as triumphant in the hero's journey. > Ann Hoban, MA Sexual Assault and Domestic Viloence > Counselor > > ------------------------------- > To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory > to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu > ------------------------------- ------------------------------- To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu ------------------------------- | ||