We are shaped by the stories we inherit.

In Episode 34 of Beyond the Spot, Tracy Gantlin-Monroy, MDiv, LPC, explores how storytelling functions as nervous-system regulation, cultural preservation, and intergenerational healing.

In many marginalized communities, oral tradition has always been medicine. Before clinical models, before pathology, before diagnosis — there were stories.

Stories that validated grief. Stories that encoded survival strategies. Stories that passed down dignity.

This episode examines:

• How trauma disrupts narrative coherence
• Why sharing story in safe spaces restores regulation
• The difference between performative vulnerability and embodied testimony
• How ancestral storytelling practices inform modern trauma work
• How clinicians can integrate narrative w ...