More About Healing
What is Story Work?
As a therapist and as a human being with a past, I have explored many paths in hopes of healing personally as well as walking others to healing. I have found nothing as effective as Story Work.
Story Work is a theoretical framework developed by Dr. Dan Allender and the team at The Allender Center in Seattle. Here are some of the main ideas:
You can’t know yourself until you know your own story, and we need the eyes and ears of others to help us make sense of our stories.
In order to know where you are going, you have to understand where you have come from.
God has made you to reflect His image and goodness to the world in a way that only you can. Your story is a part of that, but the ways you are coping with your story can actually hinder your ability to reflect God’s goodness.
Evil is not creative, and has predictable ways of attempting to block your freedom and your reflection of God’s goodness. A skilled Story Guide can help you identify where that has happened to you, along with ways you have agreed with lies from the Enemy and are living out your life in accordance with those lies.
You have to go back to particular stories, zooming in to remember what happened (as well as you can) and how it affected you. The focus is on stories from the ages of 4-18, because this is when we are “set up” for the rest of our lives.
Story Work is typically done in group settings which is incredibly powerful. I (Katie) work with groups of individuals who are bringing a particular story to process together. Part of healing is both processing your own story and being a healing agent in the lives of the rest of your group. I also work with individuals who want to further process their stories after completing a group experience.
If you want to learn more about Story Work, I recommend exploring The Allender Center website and listening to The Place We Find Ourselves, a podcast by Adam Young.
How do you know if you’re ready?
Healing takes hard, consistent work and it is done in relationship with someone who has gone before you. Healing often begins with questions like these:
Why do I feel so stuck?
Why do I keep repeating these behaviors?
Is there a different way for me to live?
Will I be like this forever?
How is it that I can want to do one thing so badly, and then do the complete opposite?
Have I ever let myself be truly seen?
What would it be like to know myself fully, and to let others know me?
What does God have for me to do in this life? How does my story reveal that calling?
If you find yourself asking any of these questions, it’s a good sign that you may be ready to begin the hard work of healing. It is critically important that you work alongside someone who can guide you. This might be through narrative-focused therapy or through story coaching. Research shows that the relationship you have with the person guiding you is more important than anything else, so find someone you can “click” with. If the first person isn’t a good fit, that’s okay! Keep searching; it’s worth it.
Hope moves you forward; healing is on the other side.
With Care,
Katie