Written by Adam Joncich, PhD,
owner and clinical director at Corestory Psychology Services.
He is in private practice, supervises, and teaches in Manhattan.
[Click here to read more about him]
Not Just Talk: Stories in Therapy and the Impacts of Telling Them
At Corestory, we hold as most important the fundamental, and animating value of story and storytelling. I see your stories as a living tapestry of what connects you to your past, defines your current experiences, and guides your decisions about how to navigate into your future. You ARE your stories, and when you lose contact with your stories, you lose contact with yourself, and in clinical language, this can lead to symptoms of depression and anxiety.
For talk therapy, I have learned a way of thinking about yourself and living your life that places a premium on telling your stories--not just to others, which is important, but more centrally, identifying and acknowledging your myriad of stories-- to yourself.
Dominant Stories vs. Your Local Story
When a person loses contact with their stories, it is often because of the impacts of a dominant story. Similar to a stereotype, a dominant story is an externally defined expectation, way of being, or circumstance. One example of a dominant story common in many families is that an older sibling relative to younger siblings can take on extra responsibilities, demonstrate increased authority, behave more decisively, or "blaze the trail." This stereotype of an older sibling can cause a person imposing this dominant story upon themselves to feel a sense of obligation to fulfill this role (in the many ways that one may fulfill it).
One can imagine how pervasive and prevalent dominant stories are--race, religion, gender, age, class, mental health status, sexual orientation, and political affiliation are only a short list of examples of dominant story categories.
Such dominant stories can serve to obscure your sense of your local story. Your local story is your lived experience--your internal sense of what has happened to you in your life. Indeed, any one local story is most often at least somewhat recognizably different than a corresponding dominant story. For example, think about your New York Story. What does it mean to you to be a New Yorker? Is that story defined by immigration? Cultural interests? Wall Street? College? Broadway? Sports? Food? Politics? Now think about the larger dominant story told about what it means to be a New Yorker (i.e., what are the general beliefs or stereotypes that even you hold about that classification)? Chances are, the two stories of being a New Yorker are different in demonstrable ways.
Relegating your local story to appease a perceived dominant story or set of dominant stories is one reason people end up seeking therapy. Recognizing these differences and protecting your local stories are thus tacit goals of talk therapy with me. Our work together in therapy is to uncover, identify and tell your local stories as completely and as authentically as possible. We work to sift through complex constellations of dominant story, to recognize your many local stories and help you reconnect to your full self.
Welcome
The purpose of this writing series is to explore how people’s stories are recognized, used, and fostered in different ways in talk therapy. Corestory therapists, supervisors, and consultants come from many angles and are informed by different theories, but one thing that animates therapy in general, is that we are here to listen and to help you tell you stories. The potential impact can only be experienced.