Perhaps the single most powerful aspect concerning our recovery process, especially during Stage One recovery, is the telling of our story. Our "story" usually includes 1) the circumstances surrounding our abuse, 2) the factual details of the various incidents of abuse, (physical, sexual and/or emotional), 3) the experiences of family and elders responding and/or not responding to the abuse, 4) the effects of the abuse throughout the years, and 5) our struggles and successes with recovery. The importance and the potential positive impact of telling and retelling our story in its many manifestations can never be underestimated. The storytelling process improves our memory of the past and decreases its negative emotional impact on our present lives. It curtails our tendency to minimize and deny what actually happened. Clarifying the abuse effects on our lives, it provides perspective to that which we need to focus in order to continue to move-on with our lives. It diminishes the scariness of the abuse and lessens the fear we have of the people who abused us. Telling our story to whomever has the capacity and willingness to listen, removes the burden of singularly carrying the horrendously heavy load of memories. Telling and retelling our story is a process giving way to freedom from the desolation of the past, to liberation from the chains that hold us back from being the people we desire to be. There are many ways and tools to tell, to express our story. Some include talking to and with others individually and within groups, writing the story as historical fact, composing poetry, drafting a play, choreographing a dance, painting and drawing, creating a video, dictating a series of audio tapes. Some of these avenues of relating our story of abuse include other people and some can be done successfully alone and privately. A combination of expression is probably more helpful than a single expression of telling and retelling our story of abuse and recovery.