Before the NSA conference, well known psychotherapist Sam Keen involved a small group of enthusiasts in life story exploration. His book Your Mythic Journey echoes my sentiments about the value of examining one's own story for the insights to be gained. I like that. Although I don't call myself a therapist, all use of story sharing for personal growth and well being is a healthy thing, a wellness approach, kin to humanistic psychology and specifically narrative and transpersonal psychology. As in my own workshops, memorable experiences were shared, expanding everyone's horizons.
Stories offer powerful ways to build relationships across human differences.
In Diversity, the new interactive process which I designed to build relationships across diversity. Participants come to understand each other far better than they can across the standard distance or through abstract generalizations or over-intellectualization. Though they emerged independently, both his approach and ours rest on faith in the power of structured group dialogues and interpersonal communication. I believe President Clinton's forums will become more productive as they evolve toward more emphasis on story sharing, rather than merely opinions. We can debate each other's opinions.