Rewriting the Story You Were Handed in Childhood

Dr. Curtis Taylor | Authentic Wellness & Empowerment (AWE)

Back then, it looked like play. But I was building stories — from the carpet up.

The Stories We Told — and the Ones That Stayed There was always a story.

In the living room — feet together in ALF pajamas — I’d create entire worlds using a Bigfoot monster truck, the Orange Blossom Special, and a WWF LJN Big John Studd figure. There were no instructions. No rules. Just a pile-up of heroes and vehicles, locked in a struggle that only made sense in my mind. And somehow… that was enough. I was making something out of everything.

It was a mess I curated. A joyful, tangled mess.

We all did that as kids — constructed elaborate, imaginative stories from plastic and carpet and leftover commercials. We’d give our toys voices. We’d invent danger, redemption, and teamwork. We were directors of our little sagas.

And here’s the thing: those stories stuck.

Some are preserved in old photographs and warm memories. The fun ones — the ones with laughter and glow-in-the-dark stickers—tend to survive in shoeboxes and scrapbooks.

But there were other stories, too. The ones we didn’t narrate out loud. The ones we learned by watching. Absorbing. Interpreting. The story about whether or not it was safe to speak. The story about who gets protected and who doesn’t. The story about being “too much,” or “not enough.”

And those stories didn’t end when childhood did. They often became our frameworks, quiet scripts we carry into relationships, careers, parenting, and pain. Some of those stories shaped how we love, how we lead, and how we survive. But healing means rewriting the story you were handed in childhood — not to erase it, but to understand it and choose differently.

At AWE, I work with people to revisit their inner worlds—not to erase the past but to rewrite the stories that no longer serve them.

You can hold on to the joy of your curated mess — the Bigfoot, the ALF shirt, the imagination that lit up a dull room. But you’re also allowed to question the quieter stories layered underneath.

The ones that taught you how to survive. The ones you’ve outgrown. The ones that were never true to begin with.

We don’t heal by pretending the past didn’t happen. We heal by telling the story differently — on purpose, in full voice, with compassion.

That’s the work.

If you’re ready to explore your story, we’re here for that.

You don’t have to sort through the pile-up alone.

Want to reconnect with the parts of yourself that got left behind? Learn more about individual counseling, retreats, and upcoming workshops at EmpowermentErie.org