Your Story Heals: Shining Light on Stories That Need to Be Told | with Katy Smith

Content warning: this episode features graphic descriptions of violence and domestic abuse.

Katy Smith is Business Editor at The Columbus Dispatch and Editor of Columbus CEO magazine. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years, most of those covering business in Columbus. She grew up in Bexley and now lives in Clintonville in a duplex with her husband Nick, her rescue cat Dexter, and her brother Joe, who she cares for.

So, Katy has been sharing other people’s stories for about 20 years now — and, today, she is generous enough to share her own story publicly for the first time. Now, fair warning: this story goes to some dark places, featuring graphic descriptions of murder, domestic abuse, and neglect.

If that is going to be triggering, this may not be the episode for you. But I am so grateful and in awe that Katy was willing to share these stories because I think it’s really important and cathartic to tell the stories that are difficult to tell — not just for yourself but for the people who receive them. 

Stories have a power to heal unlike just about anything else in this world. It can be so isolating to go through an experience and feel like you’re the only one. It’s easy to internalize negative circumstances and feel like they are your fault. And for a lot of people who are going through what Katy went through, it may not be safe to share the story yet. But when you see yourself in someone else’s story, when you hear what was possible for them, it creates a whole new possibility space; it creates hope.

What Brett asks:

• [11:42] Can you talk a little bit more about what happened for you and how you managed to navigate domestic violence?
• [16:00] Let’s back up and talk about your early childhood.
• [23:00] It must have been very difficult, whether you knew it at the time, going through that family dynamic as a young girl.
• [27:50] Tell me a little bit more about your brother and how that experience shaped your life.
• [35:53]  I think what you’ve shared so far is really important for others to hear, and maybe important for you to acknowledge and create real space for.
• [40:00] This kind of sharing is very cathartic, not just for you but for the people who hear it.

Lessons for intentional living:

• People find themselves in abusive situations, or in situations with addiction, and they take on stories about why they should have done something else, or why they should have done better, or how did they end up in this position at all? And you need to know that it’s just not your fault. You shouldn’t feel shame. It’s not too late.

Resources:

• • CHOICES for Victims of Domestic Violence
  • The Columbus Dispatch
  • Columbus CEO Magazine
  • Tim Ferriss podcast about Parts Work: “Richard Schwartz — IFS, Psychedelic Experiences without Drugs, and Finding Inner Peace for Our Many Parts (#492)”