Include the Community
In general, this blog is aimed at helping to tell your story, but as part of that I’m going to suggest making it a point not to focus only on you. That may seem like a contradiction and you may wonder, “If I’m supposed to be telling my story, why shouldn’t all the focus be on me?” That’s a valid point, and as you best understand your personal journey you will undoubtably be the main character in your story, but keeping the focus only on you detracts from a fuller story and can limit some of the benefits that come as part of rehabilitative storytelling. In this entry I’m going to outline the reasoning for these thoughts.
First, it is important to understand the assistance that came in your early recovery – family, emergency medical services, friends, therapists, rehabilitation doctors, co-workers… -- the list of individuals directly involved in some aspect of recovery is long and filled with both professional and personal relationships. This is not only hands-on medical actions, but it could be a therapist who helped with introspective discoveries, or a friend bringing meals to your door, a teacher, co-worker, or any of the people in your life. I say this often, but I’ll say it again – brain injury affects not only the survivor but the entire community – it is easy to focus only on the survivor (you) as that person is most directly affected, but acknowledging the full community allows the survivor/storyteller (you) to better comprehend the many aspects of a recovery process. A benefit of rehabilitative storytelling is gaining a personal understanding of the many people affected by both the injury and recovery, and this can be done by creating a narrative that includes these sources of aid in your story.
Furthermore, recognizing the journey of other people helps to increase the interest for a general audience, as a storyteller who harps on the personal journey/tragedy of an experience quickly loses said audience. When storytelling doesn’t recognize the impact one’s story has on other people the audience cannot see themselves in the story. A story best captures an audience member when that person can imagine the events occurring in his or her life – it makes a story seem both immediate and more real. While brain injury certainly can occur to anyone’s, the confusion and introspective complications are things that other people cannot relate to without having the experience. Without a personal connection/understanding, a long piece (40-70minutes) will feel self-indulgent and cause listeners to lose interest. Remember that an aim of rehabilitative storytelling is to create a performance that can entertain the attention of a general audience and taking time to recognize the journey of those supporting a survivor helps to make that audience feel included in the story.
Finally, by acknowledging the stories of those that helped the storyteller/survivor is reaching out to a community. Early research into the benefits of rehabilitative benefits of rehabilitative storytelling has suggested that it helps to create a stronger reintegration with the community that surrounds a survivor, and with that understanding one way to capitalize on this effect is to include the stories of said community. Community members are a part of the recovery process and by including their stories in the event it will help by acknowledging their work and sharing appreciation. Furthermore, It is easy to feel alone after brain injury and by recognizing the larger impact of brain injury on a community a survivor can recognize their place in something bigger.
Those are my early thoughts on why it is important to include the stories of those that support and surround in your personal story. Remember that it is your story many people are involved. I’ll probably come back to this topic as I ruminate on the ideas, but for now these are the three big reasons to include the stories of others in your personal story – helping the storyteller/survivor to gain a better understanding what occurred in recovery, inspiring a greater interest for the audience, and encouraging reintegration into the community. If you have any other ideas why a survivor/storyteller should recognize the stories of helpers in a personal story, please add a comment and share with friends if you think it can help.
Thank you for reading and please keep in touch.
