Healing Trauma Through Story Telling (Talk)

There is such healing powers in sharing your story of trauma. Yet, you need to feel safe to do so. In this talk, I will explain to you why your story matters and how to go about starting to share your story. Because when you tell your story you release it from you body, mind, and soul.

It is freeing when it is no longer being held in. You feel lighter with a wonderful sense of relief as you switch on the relaxation response. It helps you not feel alone and isolated giving you and others hope.

Transcript

Healing trauma through storytelling.

I'm honoured to be sharing this talk with you because I think it's so important we start sharing our stories in whichever way feels comfortable for us,

For yourself.

Because not everyone wants to be able to share it on a big platform for example like this but you can start sharing it to give yourself a sense of hope,

To give others hope,

To know that we're not alone because it's so important that when we have been through something traumatic or have had trauma in our lives that we know that we can pull through and that we can lead amazing lives because you have a story to tell.

I'm Chantal psychotherapist and Akashic record reader and in this talk I really want to emphasise or get you to appreciate that your story matters because you matter.

What you have experienced matters not what someone else has,

Don't compare yourself to others because it is so easy to do,

Is what you have experienced.

So I just want you to pause for a moment with me,

Take a gentle breath in and as you breathe out see how this makes you feel.

Do you contract thinking oh no I don't have a story to tell,

I'm not that important,

Others have had it worse than me or do you feel expansive and excited knowing that you are of value and you have a story to share because something you have in your life is your story.

No one can take that away from you,

It's something that you own,

It is your own,

It is how you feel and what you can do is own how you've pulled through,

You own your own truth.

Now truth can be what your truth is right now but that truth can then change because that's how you're feeling right now,

That is your reality,

Your reality is that's what you've experienced.

By sharing your story what you're going to start doing is start changing that around,

Shifting that,

Seeing that perhaps at the time it was perception not only just truth,

Something that you can actually let go of and see it in a whole different way.

So every time you share your story with someone and someone else cares to be witness to it,

What you're doing is starting to release the trauma,

The story from your body,

Mind and soul.

It's like this dam opens up particularly if it's for your first time and someone that's really witnessed you and out it all comes.

It feels so freeing when it's no longer being held in your body creating distress and pain.

Allow the tears to flow if need be because what you're doing here is turning off your body's stress responses,

You're turning or flipping off the toxic stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine and what you're doing is switching on the relaxation responses and that releases healing hormones such as oxytocin,

Dopamine and endorphins.

You'll begin to feel lighter with a wonderful sense of relief because what you're doing is not only turning on your body's innate self repair mechanism to function in a whole new way,

In a way that is normal,

That is natural,

That is healing but also you are relaxing the nervous system helping you heal your mind from depression,

Anxiety,

Fear,

Anger and those feelings of disconnection because when you go through trauma and let me know if you have felt this too,

You can feel so lonely and isolated,

You wonder what people will think,

You feel shame but what you'll find is that if someone else has also gone through a tough time you create a sense of connection and you might find is that they're going to celebrate their wholeness with you,

Their experience with you,

This beautiful energy exchange happens and it's such a wonderful feeling of I'm not the only one and that sense of disconnection begins to ease as you start to get a glimpse of what it can be like,

You get a glimpse of your truth of who you are beyond the trauma because you're not your trauma and that we are all beings of vibrating energy so the more we heal the more we're going to support others to heal and shift creating this whole new energy within our world and the world of others.

We're also doing this on an esoteric level,

Just like that drop in the ocean that keeps reverberating out further and further creating these beautiful rings of healing.

So let me know,

Do you feel that you even have a story worth telling?

I know I didn't even own my story or my life for many years as I was struggling getting through many levels of negativity,

Of pain,

Of hurt so even though I was leading a good life on the surface I was clouded by this and what had happened to me in my life.

So by sharing your story and by me sharing my story what you do is you actually start to change your story,

You start to see that you can have different things in your life,

You can feel differently and that you can lead this incredible life.

The facts of your story don't change but what does change is your entire view on your life,

It gives you a whole new perspective and it begins to make sense as you put words to what you've experienced.

So if you felt like the victim for your life and there's no judgment here of course,

What you begin to see is that by changing your story you can reflect on the fact that you have survived,

You have pulled through,

That you've come to this point in your life and that is to be celebrated,

To feel proud of because it is an achievement.

Now you can start making changes knowing you've got choices to thrive in your life,

To achieve what you want to achieve,

To feel free and to have a life to be honored.

How you can do this or how you can start this is by sharing your story,

By writing it out,

By sharing it with someone you trust,

By going to a professional and eventually you may even want to share it in a group or even publicly because what you're doing is viewing your emotional,

Mental and spiritual scars.

You can see yourself as strong despite that and what you're doing is changing the evidence of being hurt and empowering yourself and others to create a different future.

When you start sharing your story you need to be prepared for the fact that someone might not be able to relate to what you're sharing,

May not be interested or doesn't respond in the way you expect or want them to.

This can make you feel even more vulnerable and put you off sharing a story again.

It takes time and courage to separate yourself from this but perhaps the person might find it too hard and it is triggering them as well.

They may be putting up their own wall or barrier.

It is important to find the right person.

Now that may be a professional to start with where you can feel safe,

Heard and witnessed without judgment but keep remembering what matters is your story.

Keep sharing and ask yourself what is triggering you and to do this go back to writing and look at what happened for you because the more you can work through this the more you'll be able to support yourself and it'll come more easily.

I had a wonderful experience of the power of sharing your story that was really really beautiful.

I was on a ferry and I was standing next to a woman with her two children.

The children just started talking to me and then the mother started to.

We started sharing our stories.

We started talking and it was such a relief between the two of us.

We were complete strangers but somehow that made it easier and she was sharing that she'd had numerous things happen to her over only about two or three years and she hadn't been able to grieve properly despite having gone to a psychologist but she didn't know how to share it with her friends because they didn't understand.

They were too busy and I think at times it was too painful for them.

That was the power of us being able to open up to be able to feel vulnerable.

We'll never see each other again but that actually doesn't matter.

What we did was held space for each other.

We listened.

We didn't give advice or platitudes and we didn't try to make it better for each other because we didn't know who we were.

We were simply witnessing each other with empathy and kindness.

There is such power in that.

As I said,

There was a beautiful energy exchange here.

So simply start sharing your story where it feels safe.

As already mentioned,

It may be through writing in a journal,

In a sacred space that feels safe for you to open up and be vulnerable and write it down.

Allow the words to flow through you without hesitation and censorship.

Might take a while to get there.

Just remember that.

This is your story you are writing and sharing.

Even if it ends up being only for yourself,

That is all it may need to be.

Feel the release.

Feel the tension easing from your body and the emotional,

Mental and spiritual freedom that comes with that.

Slowly you'll turn your trauma around and see a wonderful future ahead of you.

Remember because looking back it may have felt small but each step is to be celebrated.

What is important here is that we find our voices,

That we learn to express ourselves in such a way that we feel heard and we feel of value and that we can hear and give others that same sense of value.

That makes a difference because that is who we are.

That is what we are.

We are our stories but they don't own us.

We are a value.

We matter and we are sovereign human beings.

Our story is important.

It's about bringing love,

Joy,

Happiness,

Confidence,

Harmony,

Healing and whatever it is you want to feel and experience into this world of ours that belongs to all of us.

So remember sharing your story transforms not only on a personal professional level but those of others that are listening.

I hope this was helpful.

Let me know in the comments what it has felt like for you if you've shared your story or if you haven't started yet can you see yourself starting to?

Thank you for listening.

Namaste.

Reviews

I appreciate this talk which allowed me to re-visit my timeline and reveal an early childhood story for the first time. It was actually freeing and powerful to add this piece to my life puzzle. Thank you! 💓🙏😘🙌

Thanks for sharing your story and encouraging us to do the same. I connected to the power of holding space and empathising to a complete stranger in your case the lady you’ve met in the ferry. It was beautiful and often times - these are moments when we share openly without hesitation knowing that we may not meet again.

Thank you Chantal for this empowering talk. I agree with your insights that it is important to share our stories to create hope and own our truth vs perception, creating connection and ultimately to heal.