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Check out this behind the scenes interview of an important team member of Iowa Cancer Specialists!

 

Marie - storytelling

Before Marie Tschopp was a transcriptionist for Iowa Cancer Specialists she was a stay at home mom searching for something to express her creativity while earning some money as well.

That led her to joining a storytelling guild and doing presentations for churches, schools and other organizations. Tschopp said her most popular program over the years has been her recreation of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie books.

Now she’s taken her research into the family further by releasing her book on Mary Ingalls, her sister.

“I saw there wasn’t a book on Mary and her time at the blind school,” Tschopp said. “I asked if they would allow me to write one and opened up their archives and was able to put together a book on Mary Ingalls at the blind school.”

The book is available through Amazon and features information on her life at the Iowa College for the Blind and photos that haven’t yet been published.

To put the book together she spent quite a bit of time digging through archives.

“I did a lot of research, I visited Iowa State Historical Society and the Herbert Hoover museum.  They have the Wilder papers so I  went there and did a lot of research,” Tschopp said.

Tschopp said writing the book and presenting as Laura Ingalls allows her to express her creativity and have some fun while doing it.

She’s a member of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association as well and has devoted hours and hours to researching the family for her presentations and book.

Marie has a website at http://www.marietschopp.com.

 

The epic benefits of storytelling

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Evidence is accumulating in favor of a surprising form of therapy—storytelling. Cancer survivor stories are scattered across the Internet, and the more narrative elements the story includes, the more benefits are seen in the storyteller.

Telling your story is a way of taking back control. Enhance this feeling of agency by ditching the “you” in your story. Using the second-person “you” when telling your story is an unconscious distancing mechanism used to put space between you and your cancer. Own your story. Instead of, “You lose your breath the moment you realize how close you are to death,” say, “I lost my breath the moment I realized how close I was to death.” This is the story of your life. Don’t let cancer take that from you, too.

Sharing is caring. Telling the story of your cancer experience provides a social framework for both you and those supporting you. Evidence shows that narrative practice enables people to better understand what others are going through. Sharing your story with those who care about you will give them something they can respond to—and it will prepare you to understand what they are feeling, as well.

Your story is important to your treatment. Your individual experience contains clues to what is going on inside your body that can help with proper diagnoses. Keeping the details of that experience to yourself robs your doctors and caretakers of the chance to treat you to the best of their ability and with the full extent of their knowledge. Telling your story allows small details to surface that might have gone unnoticed otherwise.

Putting your experience into words can be difficult both technically and emotionally, but it gets easier with practice. Don’t be silent—your life is worth sharing, for your benefit and that of those around you.