The Role of Story-Sharing in Healing and Social Change Among Intimate Partner Violence Survivors

Overview: This session explores the relationship between survivor story-telling, healing, and social chance. Our findings on IPV survivors’ perspectives on the role of story-telling in affecting positive change – at individual and systems levels – support efforts to recognize the expertise of lived experience and affirm calls for survivor-centered anti-violence advocacy.Proposal text: Background and

Purpose: Violence and abuse in intimate relationships (intimate partner violence [IPV]) is often perpetrated with the intent and impact of gaining and maintaining power and control; in such contexts, IPV is, by nature, disempowering and silencing. The experience of telling one’s story of trauma, conversely, can promote healing and empowerment. Survivors of IPV may receive therapeutic benefits of crafting and telling their stories. Survivors of IPV have also expressed a desire to use their own experiences in the service of helping others – to prevent and end harms from IPV. In this qualitative study, we sought to examine IPV survivors’ perspectives on motivations for sharing their stories.

Methods: This qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with individuals who had experienced IPV (n=26) and had received services from a community-based IPV program. Participants ranged in age from 25-59 years. One participant indicated non-binary gender identity; all other participants identified as women. Participants identified their racial or ethnic identities as: Black or African American (n=19), African (n=1), Latina (n=1), Middle Eastern (n=1), and white (n=4). Interviews were conducted one-on-one by a member of the research team who was trained and experienced in qualitative interviewing and IPV dynamics. Interviews were conducted in English and either in-person or via telephone or video. Participants were compensated $50. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis. Team-based qualitative conventional content analysis was used to code and analyze the transcript data.

Results: Participants described the experience of sharing their stories of IPV as a source of: 1) empowerment, supporting both their individual healing and potential contribution to positive change for others; and 2) noting the power of story-telling to achieve change in societal structures and culture, using their expertise based on lived experience. Within the theme of power of telling one’s story, participants point to storytelling and using one’s voice as a way of counteracting the disempowerment caused by IPV, and referred to the experience as “liberating.” Survivors note the credibility and expertise they have due to their own lived experience. Survivors additionally spoke of their goals of using their own stories to address needs they identified at systems level, such as court or policing systems, and described storytelling as an avenue for public education and cultural shifts in how IPV and its impacts are understood. In doing so, participants also highlighted how their experiences of IPV were not purely interpersonal, but related to macro systems that either supported or hindered their experiences with healing. Survivors highlighted the role that storytelling can play in challenging dominant narratives and igniting action.

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings on IPV survivors’ perspectives on the role and strengths of sharing their own stories to affect positive change – at individual, systems, and cultural levels – support efforts to recognize and value the expertise of lived experience and are consistent with calls for survivor-centered anti-violence advocacy. This study highlights the interplay between the personal and societal and need for systems and cultural change to address the radiating harms of IPV.