How Live Storytelling Is Helping People Cope With Mental Illness

Live storytelling is an emotionally powerful medium, and an organization in Chicago is using it to get more people talking about mental health.

Heather Bodie is the Executive Artistic Director of Blurring the Distance, a nonprofit arts organization founded in 2005 that uses live storytelling to spark community discussions on topics such as alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“You’ll notice, even in the last five years, billboards on the side of the road or signs on the side of the bus that say ‘talk to someone,’ right? But if you’ve never put language to what it means, it’s what you’re living with, what’s going on in your body, if you have a deep-seated stigma and shame about what it means to live with a mental health problem or to be going through a crisis, sit down and talk to someone, but what are you going to say ?” Bodie said. “The stories are played by professional actors. But the way it works is that people sit down with us and share their own experiences in a one-on-one interview-style setting for an hour and a half to two hours, we transcribe those interviews. , and then flesh them out as verbatim text in two-page scripts that we hand out to those actors.”

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The performances are followed by moderated discussions where the audience can talk about their own experiences and the ways they relate to the stories they have just heard.

It’s not therapy, although Bodie says it can feel therapeutic. And most importantly, it gives the public the opportunity to learn how to talk about mental health with other people.

“If we can’t talk about it, we can’t tap into the resources that can lead to potential healing. So storytelling helps people understand how to put words to what they live with,” she said.

Beyond its live and virtual storytelling events, Erasing the Distance also works with schools, faith-based organizations, and workplaces to reach different audiences, especially those new to mental health discussions.

“I think that’s our biggest challenge. A lot of times in our public performances, the people who join the room are here for that, right? And I sincerely wish that more people who are new to the experience of talking about their mental health was introduced to this kind of thing,” Bodie said.

Newsy’s mental health initiative “America’s Breakdown: Confronting Our Mental Health Crisis” brings you deeply personal and carefully told stories about the state of mental health care in the US. Click here Learn more.