Story work
Your story matters
We all have a story. Sadly, in the world we live in, none of us escape tragedy. Whether emotional, physical, sexual, racial, or spiritual, all of us have experienced some form of trauma.
The first step of healing is often simply naming the pattern.
Story work invites you to understand your story in a deeper way and to be able to name the places of harm as well as to name the places of deep beauty and resilience. Story work helps you work past the layers of debris in order to see your True Self.
I offer story work through the modality of The Narrative Focused Trauma Care® (NFTC) Model, a modality created from the lifelong work of Dr. Dan Allender. This is a form of holistic soul care that integrates psychology and theology for a holistic and comprehensive way to engage the harm of trauma and abuse that considers the context as well as the whole person—mind, body, and soul. It explores formative narratives around family of origin, relational dynamics, sexual development, experiences of abuse or neglect and considers both personal and collective trauma.
This work is:
Trauma-informed
Holistic
Intergenerational
Contextual
My experience and social location expands this work to include:
Embodiment and somatic practices
Cultural, racial, and gender identity
Liberation and anti-oppression
Creative recovery
We were created for harmony and yet our lives can be full of anxiety, depression, and fear.
Trauma does not happen in isolation, it occurs in a context—from the individual, family, cultural and the systemic.
Neglect and abuse both disrupt development, but in different ways: Abuse adds trauma (violence, fear). Neglect removes what’s needed (safety, connection, mirroring).
The harm of trauma might be more obvious but the consequences of neglect, the absence of the things you needed to develop is insidious and can be as devastating to a persons life as those of abuse.
Left unaddressed, these stories of deep heartache, grief, loss, helplessness, and powerlessness become embedded in the brain and the body, keeping us stuck in traumatic responses through chronic fear, anxiety, depression, fragmentation, numbing, and isolation. These traumatic memories continue to live in the body and can manifest as daily triggers, haunting us and keeping us stuck in unconscious habits and patterns, disconnected feelings, and physical responses. Trauma doesn’t always show up as clear memories. It can live in the body as tension, in emotions we can’t explain, or in patterns we repeat without knowing why.
As humans, we are wired to make meaning of our lived experiences through the story we tell ourselves around what happened and what it means about ourselves and others. Reconnecting with and reshaping our personal narrative can be a powerful step toward deep healing on every level—physical, emotional, and spiritual.
By engaging the story of our experiences—even as fragments or sensations—we open the door to integrative healing across the body, mind, and spirit.
We begin to rewrite the narratives of our lives and experience freedom and relief as we begin to integrate these experiences into our past as memories rather than present truths. When those stories are received by a compassionate witness and guide—someone who can hold both our woundedness and our dignity—we begin to feel whole again. In being truly seen, we find new strength, deeper purpose, and the kind of connection that brings us back to life.