How Stories Heal

«So many teachers and students want to write from the heart but are too afraid to do so. Here is a book that gives us the courage, freedom, and essential skills to tell the stories we most need to tell. A must-read for all who are carrying stories that ache to be told.» (Ruth Behar, MacArthur Genius Award Winner; Author of ‘Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in Between Journeys’)
«Since encountering Robert J. Nash’s work on SPN, my thinking about dissertation research has been transformed. I have always valued narrative but never been able to craft an argument regarding its legitimacy in the academy until encountering his ideas. In ‘How Stories Heal’, Nash and Sydnee Viray continue their collaboration, begun in ‘Our Stories Matter’, to explore the emotional and visceral dimensions of SPNs … This is a wonderful book, rich with wisdom and compassion and it will be enormously helpful to anyone considering writing an SPN.» (Stephen Brookfield, John Ireland Endowed Chair, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis-St. Paul)
«Founder of the revolutionary SPN method Robert J. Nash has created a detailed guide on how to bear witness to our lives by writing our own scholarly stories. His belief that the world of academe has suffered from depersonalization – and that higher learning more effectively takes place when students and teachers are able to explore and communicate their unique experiences as they relate to the human experience in its entirety – has led to the development of this postmodern system of academic writing. Sydnee Viray shares Nash’s conviction that by writing our stories using SPN, we can create existential meaning for our lives. Her involvement not only adds a feminine perspective, but a second clear voice which highlights non-judgment and compassion.
A radical departure from the dusty tomes typically associated with higher education, as well as the soulless material students are traditionally taught to write, SPN gives students, instead, the tools to thoroughly explicate their lives, share what they have learned, and apply that learning to universal philosophy. As a dedicated writer of my own stories, I hear from people every day who struggle with the ‘how’ of telling theirs. SPN offers us the chance to articulate our own idiosyncratic struggles, release pain, and find peace and passion throughout the process.» (Erica Leibrandt, featured writer for ‘Elephant Journal’, YA 200 yoga instructor, and memoirist)
«It’s high time we honored our personal stories not as peripheral to but as pillars of research and scholarship. At once secular and sacred, academic and intensely personal, ‘How Stories Heal’ brings to mind the work of philosopher Martin Buber, who wrote ‘… we live in the currents of universal reciprocity.’ Nash and Viray have assembled a collection of stories that is equal parts memoir, methodology, and mirror, embodying and teaching the very truths they set out to convey. Putting ‘meaning-making’ into the process of learning, of becoming fully human, is something we owe ourselves and each other, as students and educators. This book is a gift not only to the academy, but perhaps more importantly, beyond it.» (Jena Strong, Associate Director, Career Options Resource Center, Hampshire College; author of two collections of poetry and prose, ‘Don’t Miss This’ and ‘The Inside of Out’)
«So many teachers and students want to write from the heart but are too afraid to do so. Here is a book that gives us the courage, freedom, and essential skills to tell the stories we most need to tell. A must-read for all who are carrying stories that ache to be told.» (Ruth Behar, MacArthur Genius Award Winner; Author of ‘Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in Between Journeys’)
«Since encountering Robert J. Nash’s work on SPN, my thinking about dissertation research has been transformed. I have always valued narrative but never been able to craft an argument regarding its legitimacy in the academy until encountering his ideas. In ‘How Stories Heal’, Nash and Sydnee Viray continue their collaboration, begun in ‘Our Stories Matter’, to explore the emotional and visceral dimensions of SPNs … This is a wonderful book, rich with wisdom and compassion and it will be enormously helpful to anyone considering writing an SPN.» (Stephen Brookfield, John Ireland Endowed Chair, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis-St. Paul)
«Founder of the revolutionary SPN method Robert J. Nash has created a detailed guide on how to bear witness to our lives by writing our own scholarly stories. His belief that the world of academe has suffered from depersonalization – and that higher learning more effectively takes place when students and teachers are able to explore and communicate their unique experiences as they relate to the human experience in its entirety – has led to the development of this postmodern system of academic writing. Sydnee Viray shares Nash’s conviction that by writing our stories using SPN, we can create existential meaning for our lives. Her involvement not only adds a feminine perspective, but a second clear voice which highlights non-judgment and compassion.
A radical departure from the dusty tomes typically associated with higher education, as well as the soulless material students are traditionally taught to write, SPN gives students, instead, the tools to thoroughly explicate their lives, share what they have learned, and apply that learning to universal philosophy. As a dedicated writer of my own stories, I hear from people every day who struggle with the ‘how’ of telling theirs. SPN offers us the chance to articulate our own idiosyncratic struggles, release pain, and find peace and passion throughout the process.» (Erica Leibrandt, featured writer for ‘Elephant Journal’, YA 200 yoga instructor, and memoirist)
«It’s high time we honored our personal stories not as peripheral to but as pillars of research and scholarship. At once secular and sacred, academic and intensely personal, ‘How Stories Heal’ brings to mind the work of philosopher Martin Buber, who wrote ‘… we live in the currents of universal reciprocity.’ Nash and Viray have assembled a collection of stories that is equal parts memoir, methodology, and mirror, embodying and teaching the very truths they set out to convey. Putting ‘meaning-making’ into the process of learning, of becoming fully human, is something we owe ourselves and each other, as students and educators. This book is a gift not only to the academy, but perhaps more importantly, beyond it.» (Jena Strong, Associate Director, Career Options Resource Center, Hampshire College; author of two collections of poetry and prose, ‘Don’t Miss This’ and ‘The Inside of Out’)