Part one. Writing: not drowning -- Waving: not drowning -- Facing trauma: when there are no words -- Writing: finding our words -- Part two. Writing down the self -- A room of your own: a journal -- Writing down the self -- Stages of writing and healing -- Part three. Finding meaning through story -- The magical mystery tour: how our brains create story -- Stories: our lives hang on narrative threads -- Finding our life-defining stories -- Making sense of self with stories -- Part four. Rewriting our shattered stories -- Writing to heal -- Breaking the silence -- Getting unstuck -- Embracing other perspectives -- Story editing -- Rewriting and transforming -- Part five. Writing to heal -- Writing to heal from hardships and trauma -- Writing to heal from illness and injury -- Writing to heal from loss -- Part six. Writing to transform -- Resilience -- The burst of creativity -- Epilogue.
Summary:
"Informed by the author's pioneering work with veterans and cancer patients, and her years of teaching writing and researching its healing properties, The Story You Need to Tell is a practical and inspiring guide to transformational personal storytelling. Riveting true stories illustrate Marinella's methods for understanding, telling, and editing our own stories in ways that foster resilience and renewal. Marinella also shares her own experience of using journal and expressive writing to navigate challenges including breast cancer and post-partum depression. Each of the techniques, prompts, and exercises she presents work to "unravel the knot inside and to make sense of loss." Based on a profound understanding of how "in our sadness and pain we can be remade," this is the kind of storytelling - and the kind of book - that can change and perhaps even save a life"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.