Storytelling is a powerful tool that promotes connection with others, allows for vulnerability, and creates pathways for healing. Sometimes our stories become trapped inside for fear that others may judge and/or reject us. We may have shame or guilt because of things that happened to us or things we said or did. However, when we lock up our stories, it often keeps us stuck. What we know to be true is that we are not alone in what we have endured. The human experience confirms that there are others like us and when we share our stories, we find that connection. Telling our stories opens up the opportunity to learn from others and to gain ways to cope and survive. An essential part of the storytelling are the people who listen and bear witness to the story. In this way, storytelling can be seen as a beautiful circle, in which the storyteller and the listener benefit.
7 Ways Storytelling Help Us to Heal
- Fosters community and human connection (humanizing)
- Helps people to remember; to share memories, and to create new memories
- Allows people to connect to their feelings and emotions
- Releases negative emotions like shame, guilt, anger, and sorrow
- Increases empathy and oxytocin, the happiness hormone
- Creates opportunities for the storyteller and the listener to heal
- Can empower people to act and to advocate for change
References
Chioneso, N. A., Hunter, C. D., Gobin, R. L., McNeil Smith, S., Mendenhall, R., & Neville, H. A. (2020). Community healing and resistance through storytelling: A framework to address racial trauma in Africana communities. Journal of Black Psychology, 46(2-3), 95-121.