The Inner JourneyStory Work
A place to engage and listen carefully to your life, attending to how love, loss, and longing have shaped the meaning you carry, and allowing your story to be held with honesty and care.
The FoundationWhat is Story Work?
Story work begins with the belief that your life is not merely a series of events, but a story shaped by meaning. What has happened to you, especially in relationship, has formed how you see yourself, others, and the world. Story work listens closely to those meanings, particularly where love was absent, distorted, or costly, and where longing still remains.
This work is not about rehearsing the facts of your life or moving quickly toward resolution. It is about engaging your story with honesty and courage, attending to how suffering, desire, and attachment have shaped the way you live and love. Story work assumes that our struggles are not random or shameful, but meaningful responses to what we have endured.
Rather than fixing or correcting, story work seeks understanding. It invites a deeper reckoning with the parts of your story that have been minimized, misunderstood, or left unnamed. Over time, this engagement opens space for redemption, not as erasure of pain, but as a reworking of meaning that allows greater freedom, truth, and connection to emerge.
Common ExperiencesWho seeks Story Work?
Story work often draws those who sense that their struggles are not simply about the present moment, but are connected to deeper patterns of meaning formed over time. Many people come to this work because they feel unsettled by parts of their story that remain confusing, painful, or unfinished, and they long for those places to be taken seriously.
You may be drawn to story work if you find yourself asking questions such as:
Why does this pattern keep repeating in my life or relationships?
Why do certain experiences carry so much weight, even years later?
Why does closeness feel complicated, costly, or unsafe?
Why do I feel shaped by events I thought I had already moved past?
Story work is especially meaningful for those who sense that their suffering deserves more than quick explanations or coping strategies. It offers a place to engage the deeper questions of identity, attachment, loss, and longing, trusting that God is present in the honest telling of what has been lived, not only in resolution or clarity.
This work tends to resonate with individuals who are willing to move slowly, tell the truth, and allow their story to be examined with care. Story work does not promise ease or certainty, but it does invite a deeper engagement with one’s life in the presence of God, where meaning can be reworked and connection gradually restored.
The JourneyOur approach
Story work begins by turning toward the stories of origin that shaped us long before we had language or choice. We attend to the relationships, environments, and moments that formed our earliest understandings of love, safety, power, and belonging. These stories are not simply remembered. They are lived out, often unconsciously, in our bodies, our relationships, and our longings.
In this work, we name both harm and beauty. We take seriously where love was given and where it was withheld, where protection failed, and where goodness still managed to break through. Story work refuses to minimize suffering or rush toward gratitude. It allows grief, anger, confusion, and longing to have their full weight, trusting that truth is the ground where healing begins.
Central to story work is the recognition where shalom has been shattered. Not only by obvious trauma, but by neglect, misunderstanding, betrayal, and the quiet losses that often go unnamed. These fractures shape how we see ourselves, how we attach to others, and how we imagine God’s presence in our lives. Story work listens carefully to these ruptures, not to assign blame, but to understand how meaning was formed in their wake.
Redemption, in this framework, is not about fixing the past or moving beyond it. It is an invitation to engage the story more fully and more honestly. Redemption unfolds as meaning is reworked, as truth is spoken where silence once ruled, and as God’s presence is encountered not apart from suffering, but within it. This is slow, demanding work that honors the dignity of a life taken seriously.
How Story Work differs from individual therapy
Story work is not a diagnostic or symptom-based form of treatment. It does not involve diagnosing mental health conditions, assigning clinical labels, or focusing on symptom reduction as its primary goal. Instead, story work is a meaning-centered, interpretive process that attends to how a person’s life experiences have been understood and carried over time.
Individual therapy typically focuses on present-day functioning, emotional regulation, relational patterns, and clinical goals shaped by mental health assessment. Story work, by contrast, is oriented toward interpretation rather than diagnosis. It asks how stories of origin, attachment, harm, and beauty have shaped identity, longing, and relationship to self, others, and God.
Story work does not replace individual therapy. For many, it unfolds alongside therapy as a complementary process that deepens insight and coherence. For others, it is engaged as a focused season of reflection and integration, grounded in clinical care when needed. When story work is offered within a therapeutic relationship, it remains ethically bound, relationally attuned, and attentive to safety and capacity.
Both approaches honor care and responsibility. Story work simply addresses a different dimension of healing, one that engages meaning, interpretation, and redemption without operating as a diagnostic or treatment-driven modality.
Story workWhat to expect
Session Rhythm
Story Work sessions are typically 50 minutes, held weekly or bi-weekly depending on your needs and preferences. We create a consistent schedule to support your progress.
Relational Care and Boundaries
Story Work is held within a relationally attentive and ethically grounded framework. What is shared is treated with respect and confidentiality, within standard legal and ethical limits. This work is non-diagnostic and meaning-centered, and it may be offered alongside individual therapy or as a focused season of engagement.
Engaging Your Story
Story Work involves returning to stories of origin, formative relationships, and experiences that shaped how you understand love, loss, safety, and longing. Through written story we will explore both harm and beauty, attending to where meaning was formed, distorted, or left unfinished.
Pace and Capacity
There is no fixed timeline for Story Work. This process unfolds slowly and deliberately, shaped by your readiness and emotional capacity.
Begin your journeyReady to explore your story?
Start with an initial consultation to discuss your needs and see if we're the right fit.