|
Recent Conversations I don't have a guest reflection for you this month, so I thought I would do something a little different and share two recent conversations from the Redeeming Stories Podcast. As I thought about these two women and their very different stories, I realized they actually fit quite naturally with what I have been pondering about choice, what we carry, and what happens when we begin deciding for ourselves what comes next. Reclaiming Choice: Survivor Centered Healing in Rural Communities My conversation with Izzi Simonsen, Programs Manager at the Women's Resource Center in Dillon, Montana, gave us an opportunity to talk about what survivor-centered support actually looks like. One thing that stayed with me from our conversation was the importance of choice. Trauma and abuse can take so much choice away from a person, which means supporting someone cannot be about stepping in and deciding what we think they should do next. Sometimes support means creating enough safety and providing enough information that someone can begin making those decisions for herself again. We also talked about the realities of seeking help in rural communities, where resources can be limited and privacy can feel complicated when everyone seems to know everyone else. The conversation reminded me that being heard and believed matters, but so does having someone beside you who respects that the next step still belongs to you. Listen to “Reclaiming Choice: Survivor Centered Healing in Rural Communities” on the Redeeming Stories Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Youtube. From Seeking Shelter to Creating Change: A Story of Survival & Advocacy My conversation with Tiffany Wilkson approached some of these ideas from a very different place. Tiffany has lived through domestic violence, shelter, serious illness, loss, healing, and eventually advocacy. Years after entering a domestic violence shelter herself, she returned to the same organization as an advocate. Eventually, the emotional weight of that work became too much, and she had to recognize that continuing to help others did not have to mean continuing to hurt herself. Today, Tiffany still serves children and families experiencing homelessness and advocates around poverty and food insecurity through Family Promise in Great Falls, Montana. I keep thinking about that part of her story because I think many of us can become attached to the idea that once we find something meaningful, we have to keep doing it in exactly the same way. Tiffany's story reminded me that we are allowed to change how we carry the things that matter to us. Sometimes letting go of one way of doing something makes room for another. Listen to “From Seeking Shelter to Creating Change: A Story of Survival & Advocacy” on the Redeeming Stories Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Youtube.
|
