After an interesting weekend Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) celebration I was excited to get back to school today.

In my clinical counseling class, we’ll be discussing a lot about how to hold space for patients, how to listen and engage patients in a therapeutic way, and we’ll learn when and where and how to suggest other therapy options.

Today in class we shared our stories with each other, first in pairs, then in small groups and then with the whole class. I LOVE stories, I think part of why I’m going in to this field is to hear people’s stories (something I don’t think I realized until now). I think our personal narrative is tremendously powerful in shaping our lives, and knowing that we have control over that narrative is probably one of first steps to affect change in our lives. This is why stories are so important, listening to stories, hearing stories, and telling stories (our own or those of others) to me are sources of a tremendous amount of potential power.

One of my classmates mentioned that she came to study Chinese medicine after coming to an understanding of how our emotions affect our bodies through her experience acting. She was saying she wants to help people better understand the story their body is telling, and help them change their story to a more positive one through healing. Once we understand how our story affects our health, we can try to understand our story, and look for what changes we want to make.

Consider this an introduction to a theme I hope to further explore. Please feel free to share a story and maybe over the next few days try to be aware of how you tell stories when you do. Which events do you highlight? Which interactions do you leave out? How do you tell the same story differently to different people? (While you’re at it, pay closer attention to the stories of those close to you, and how and what they tell).

Feel free to share experiences!