How storytelling can heal, reclaim space and reduces stigma 

Why do stories matter for wellbeing? How can storytelling reclaim identity beyond trauma? What does storytelling look like as healing practice? 

Why stories matter for mental health and belonging 

Stories are how we remember, belong and heal. When a person tells their life story, listeners gain the context that turns behaviours, reactions, or distress from “strange” into deeply human. In the upcoming Black Mentality Podcast, artist, architect, and curator Kholisile Dhliwayo shared vivid examples from his family history: a grandfather who walked for days to attend school and an elder living with dementia who was better supported because community members knew her life and personality. 

Psychological research shows that storytelling in family and community life supports meaning-making, identity, and mental wellbeing. Studies of Black families in the United States found that sharing stories across generations can strengthen emotional bonds and well-being, even as it shapes how trauma and resilience are understood collectively. In many African and diasporic cultures, storytelling is not special occasion work. It is everyday practice. An oral tradition that transmits culture, values and care across generations. This aligns with research showing that narrative traditions rooted in oral cultures support therapeutic conversations and meaning-making, especially among older adults and communities with strong oral histories. 

In fast-paced Western cities, these informal storytelling spaces often shrink. Families are stretched, communal memory fragments, and people without shared narrative supports are more vulnerable to isolation. This loss of story can increase stigma and misunderstanding around mental distress, particularly where clinical systems and public narratives fail to reflect individual and community experience.  

Reclaiming narrative through creative and cultural practice 

Kholisile began curating exhibitions because he saw how African cities and lives were often portrayed through narrow and superficial lenses. Representations tended toward crisis framing or exoticism, missing everyday creativity, nuance and strength. Through self-funded exhibitions and projects such as Black Diasporas and afrOURban, Kholi intentionally foregrounds lived experience in ordinary and everyday worlds. Representation matters for mental health because it expands what people imagine is possible for themselves. Research regarding health communication shows that storytelling interventions tailored to specific cultural experiences engage communities more meaningfully than abstract health messages, improving knowledge, self-efficacy and behavioural intentions. For younger people of African heritage, seeing nuanced stories and images of their communities does more than shift perception. It supports culturally grounded identity development, improves self-esteem and fosters resilience. These narrative practices resist stereotypes by making visible the ordinary, creative, multi-dimensional and complex lives that are too often absent from dominant media and health narratives. 

Storytelling as a pathway to healing and reduced stigma 

Healing through story combines creativity, therapy and listening. Telling difficult personal experiences can be painful, but it can also be liberating. Black and African people’s experiences reflect wider research showing that narrative work whether in clinical therapy or community storytellin,g can reduce stigma and improve attitudes toward mental health care. A recent study found that storytelling interventions significantly reduced public stigma, perceived discrimination, and increased openness to seeking treatment among Black and other racialised communities.

In therapeutic research, narrative interventions including narrative enhancement and cognitive therapy have been linked with improved self-esteem, coping and emotional wellbeing among people with serious mental illness. Through creative work and shared stories, we learn not only to tell our own experiences but also to listen well and witness others’ journeys, thus building collective care rather than individual solitude. 

Practical strategies: stories as care

Resilience grows when small, repeatable and culturally meaningful actions are done together and given cultural meaning. Evidence-informed options include brief interoceptive checks, rhythm and music-based grounding, and cultStories are both mirror and medicine. They reflect who we are and support healing. Kholisile Dhliwayo ’s work reminds us that reclaiming narrative is not a solo act. It requires Black-led spaces, local institutions, and everyday listening which make room for complexity and connection. 

This week, consider three small steps: 

• Share one story with someone you trust. 
• Support Black creatives and community institutions doing this work. 
• Create or join a local listening space where being heard becomes care. 

If you want to explore Kholi’s work further, visit afrOURban.art or contact info@afrOURban.art. 

If you are unsure where to start, try this plan this week. If symptoms persist or worsen, contact a culturally safe clinician who understands how race, migration and faith shape stress and healing.

Take the next step

For extra help, subscribe to the Tabvuma Mental Health Getting Started Mental Health Care Package for guided exercises and journaling templates you can use immediately.

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Until next time,

Tabvuma Mental Health