“Sharing my story from the beginning was so important because it pushed me to touch on those things that hurt so bad that I never wanted to talk about.”
Alice’s words reveal a truth at the heart of healing: our stories — including the wounds we would rather bury — can become the very places where God meets us and makes new life possible.
Her journey is part of a larger series on the six waypoints of transformation — a rhythm of healing we see again and again in people’s lives.
Waypoints 3 and 4: Sharing Story → Deepening Relationships
Watch Alice share her turning point (5-minute video)
Alice’s journey included homelessness while hospitalized, months in jail, and the weight of untreated trauma. But when she was invited to write her story from birth, something shifted.
“Before you know it, you have like 10 pages… It helps you release everything you didn’t know you had. I knew because I lived it, but I didn’t know because my mind repressed it.”
Why Sharing Our Story & Deepening Relationships Matters
When Alice shared her story and was truly heard, something sacred happened. In Ignatian spirituality, we would say that grace was present in that moment — meeting her in the very wounds she had long buried, and opening them as places where new life could begin.
Researchers glimpse the same mystery. They describe healing as a “triangular connection between storyteller, listener, and something greater than both” (PubMed Central, 2015). Even in clinical settings, people facing addiction report much higher trust when their care includes simple, human connection — proof that feeling heard is essential (PubMed Central, 2021).
Alice puts it more beautifully than any study:
“It takes a community to raise a child, right? But it also takes a community to raise love, to raise compassion, to raise joy, to raise understanding.”
Your Part in the Journey
Your support makes these circles of deep listening possible — places where God shows up in story, where pain gives way to hope.
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