Lion's Roar

THE HEALING POWER OF THE TRUTH

ANDREA MILLER: How did you personally discover the liberating power of telling the story of the abuse and trauma you suffered?

EVE ENSLER: From an early age, I was always writing. I felt like if I could write in my journal, I would be okay. I could create this alternative persona and I could tell that persona things. It somehow lifted off the pressure I was feeling.

And I always loved the theater. People told stories out loud that were uncomfortable. They said things that weren’t supposed to be said. My childhood was spent living a lie. I was living in this upper-middle-class family with literally a white picket fence. Violence was going on inside, and everybody was pretending it wasn’t. That was driving me insane. So when I realized there might be a way to say the truth, that was a thrilling prospect.

Why is it healing for us to tell the story

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