Chicago Organization Uses Live Storytelling To Discuss Mental Health
Newsy
The Chicago organization Erasing The Distance uses live performances to work through topics like alcoholism, depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Live storytelling is an emotionally powerful medium, and one organization in Chicago is using it to get more people to talk about mental health.
“You'll notice, even in the last like five years, billboards on the side of the highway or signs on the side of the bus that say ‘Talk to someone,’ right?" Heather Bodie, executive artistic director at Erasing the Distance, said. "But if you've never placed language to what it is that you're living with, to what it is that's going on in your body, if you have deep seated stigma and shame around what it means to live with a mental health issue or to be going through crisis, you go sit down and talk to someone, but what are you going to say?”
Erasing The Distance is a non-profit arts organization started in 2005 that uses live storytelling to foster community discussions about topics like alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
