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Telling Our Stories, Finding Ourselves: The Healing Power of Narrative Therapy

Updated: Aug 8

Residents of Fellside hanging out in the living room.
Residents of Fellside hanging out in the living room.

Recently, our Fellside Skills Group completed a deeply moving series of life-story sharing sessions. Participants spoke openly—some about mental health and recovery, others with humor or reflection. All stories were real. All mattered.


Every time someone shared, the room shifted. Understanding deepened, compassion increased, and many experienced personal insight. We witnessed how telling your story—and being truly heard—can hold profound healing power.


A Hidden Brain episode, “Healing 2.0: Change Your Story, Change Your Life,” brought those same themes into focus. In that July 2025 episode, psychologist Jonathan Adler explores how narrative identity—the way we frame our life stories—shapes our psychological well‑being.


Adler discusses two common narrative therapy arcs


  • Redemption sequences—stories that move from hardship to growth—are consistently linked to greater well‑being: lower depression, higher life satisfaction, and stronger self-esteem.

  • Contamination sequences—stories that begin positively and end negatively—tend to correlate with lower well‑being.


Fellside, a yellow colonial house with a purple door, surrounded by trees, is the Gould Farm transition program located in Medford, Massachusetts.
Fellside, the Gould Farm transition program located in Medford, Massachusetts.

Our interpretation matters. While we can't change what happened, we can influence how we remember it—and that reinterpretation can open paths to healing.


Adler is careful to note that not every hardship becomes a happy ending. Meaning doesn’t always arrive with joy. Sometimes it’s enough to find coherence—to see how your story makes sense, even when it remains difficult.


That nuance felt familiar as our participants shared. Their stories honored moments of despair and disconnection, alongside recovery and reconnection. We heard agency, resilience, humor, heartbreak—all very alive.

As one participant reflected, “It helped me see my life as something I’ve lived through, not just in.”
Fellside residents gathered in the living room for a late-night snack.
Fellside residents gathered in the living room for a late-night snack.

We tell stories to understand where we've been—and to discover where we're going.

We appreciate the Hidden Brain team and Jonathan Adler for bringing the science of narrative therapy to public awareness. The full episode, “Healing 2.0: Change Your Story, Change Your Life,” is available on NPR and the Hidden Brain website (links below).


To the Fellside Skills Group participants who shared your stories with us: thank you. You remind us that healing begins with being seen—and that every story, even the hardest ones, holds the possibility of transformation.


Resources for Further Listening & Reading


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