Tell Your Story Before They Do

Tell Your Story Before They Do

Personal empowerment is about becoming more aware of yourself as a unique individual and developing confidence and strength. Every individual has their strengths and weaknesses along with a variety of skills that are utilized in everyday situations; however, people frequently tend to undervalue or remain unaware of their true abilities.

On March 18, 2016, I attended an empowering event by poet, educator, entrepreneur, and professional and motivational speaker, Nate Howard, at San Diego State University. Nate is the founder of “Movement Be”, which is a non-profit organization that encourages youth nationwide to find their purpose through self-expression. He challenges the schools to use this movement to summon the students for social change. He asks you to define your essence, and not through your grades or your job. I decided to participate in this particular event because the topic of using self-expression to empower one’s self can be applied to any individual at any age and at any time. I especially liked this topic because it does not require a major learned skill because it simply asks you to recognize, identify and acknowledge the things that make you, you.

Introduction: Nate explained his enlightening background story of what inspired him to start “Movement Be”. As a student at University of Southern California, he was discriminated against due to the color of his skin. He explained the events that occurred during that time and how others, including police, defined him before he could. Due to this event, he decided to raise awareness and strengthen individuals’ empowerment so that they could tell their story before someone else told it for them. He is a passionate advocate for instilling value in yourself while gaining self-determination to exude the interests and unique qualities that represent you.

Part I Activity: The activity was to pair up with a partner and have them look into your eyes intently while asking, “Who are you?” consistently for one minute while you answer continuously. This seemed easy at first until it became more difficult to go into depth and find adjectives to describe who you are. The answers generally went from surface level answers, such as, “student, daughter, sister” to deeper answers, such as, “ambitious, curious, a risk-taker”. After one minute, the partners would switch roles and repeat the same activity. It was indeed a self-empowering activity for everyone because the descriptions of ourselves are not typically remembered daily. It was interesting to really step back, dig deep, and describe words that signify my core-being.

Part II Activity: Nate explained that we should be the best “me” that can be because we are unique individuals and we each carry a purpose in life. He performed a spoken word poem that had the entire room drawn in with his voice echoing and his confidence bouncing off the walls and back into his words. The room fell completely silent and yet you could feel the empowerment from each of us rising.

Nate explained that we are the main character in our stories and we wrote the script, so follow it. It is you versus you where you are your own villain or hero. He followed the spoken word with an activity where he had everyone write down “I am” three times, continued with “because my purpose is to…”. This activity tied in the whole session by re-centering who we are and what our purpose is. He emphasized to not let our legacy be in the hands of someone else. Be the owner of your story, because revolution starts with you.

Counseling Techniques Used: The counseling intervention technique used during this event was narrative therapy. Narrative therapy is often used as a client’s guide to change through their own set of skills. Nate urged everyone to search and explore the meaning and essence of who they were while having them declare their purpose. The technique externalizes the client from the problem while encouraging them to trust their own range of abilities to reduce the problems in their daily lives. Because these personal experiences help shape our identity, narrative therapy uses that influence to help the client discover their story and rewrite it. It can be employed in any context. Some examples of where narrative therapy can be applied are people with eating disorders, depression, anxiety, autism, PTSD, etc. Narrative therapy can be used with individuals, couples, or in a group such as families. It can be used with any age, gender and grade level as it simply allows the individual to narrate their story which allows gravitation towards change. It is evidence-based and can be measured through questionnaires based on the situation. Another way that effectiveness can be measured is improvement in coherence with stability in the plot, relevance, and lack of conflicting statements. Before implementing narrative therapy, the idea of the client having their own vision of reality differing from your own view or the dominant culture’s view should be considered. I plan to use this technique with students who associate the problem as part of themselves instead of seeing the problem affecting them separately. It is key to help the student identify a time that he/she was not controlled by the problem to illustrate the attributes they already possess to overcome the issue. It is essential to have the student define their reality and rewrite their own story before someone else defines it for them.

Saba Ahmed
Student, M.S. School Counseling

References

NateHowardSpeaks.com

Dulwich Centre Publications Pty Ltd & Dulwich Centre Foundation Inc. (N.A.) Research, Evidence and Narrative Practices. Retrieved from http://dulwichcentre.com.au/narrative-therapy-research/  

Gibbs. S. M. (2016). Narrative Therapy. Retrieved from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/577