Storytelling – the freedom to say what you want to say
By Cissy Brady-Rogers
Eight years ago I started a blog. I called my first post: Something to Say. I started a blog because I have a lot to say and needed a forum to say it. As a psychotherapist I struggled with how much of my story and my “self” to reveal.
Back in the early 1990’s therapists didn’t tell our own stories. In those pre-internet days, books, journals and print media were how mental health practitioners shared professional knowledge. And the stories we told were most often not our own, but those of clients or patients we’d worked with. It just wasn’t the way things were done.
Post-modern and feminist egalitarian approaches to therapy made room for more flexibility in terms of how much of our “selves” to share with clients. And with that shift an increasing number of clinicians began choosing to share pieces of our own stories as a way to normalize and empower clients on their healing path. The introduction of digital media, blogs and websites changed the professional ethos around self-promotion and self-disclosure.
While these shifts made space for revealing more of myself, I felt a tension about how to write and what voice to write from. I also feared that my increasingly open, inclusive and inter-spiritual approach to how I understood the good news of Christianity would generate negative responses and argumentation from the evangelical community I’d called home since my teenage years.
One day my wise friend Jody said to me: “Why don’t you just tell your story? People can’t argue with your story.”
So, I started a blog and began sharing my story. Since then, I’ve posted 188 blogs! Because, I have something to say!
You have something to say too. Your family, friends, community, and a hurting world need you to say what you have to say.
Susan Blackie, author of If Women Rose Rooted, writes that her journey to authenticity and belonging taught her that “If women want to change things, we need authority, and authority comes in good part from inside ourselves. It comes from conviction, from understanding and owning our stories, from a strong sense of who we are and what our place is in the world.”
What do you have to say? Do you want a safe space to share your story?
To speak your truth? To declare your unique view of reality?
I wonder what would happen if you say what you want to say?
We want to help you say it.
Be brave. Join us – Friday evening, September 22 – Harvest: Shared Meal & Storytelling gathering. Because your story matters.
