THE ICE, THE DARK, AND THE STORIES: THE HEALING POWER OF SHARED NARRATIVES.

We want to tell you a story. Like any good story, it has been a beginning, a middle, and an end. We began with the point of view of the scholar, objective. Our aim was to do a descriptive research design to measure the impact of the Ice Storm of 1994. The setting was North Mississippi in March of 1994. We began by looking for what went wrong, how things had messed up, assuming much in drawing our conclusions before we had even talked to the population, the “client.” However, we were confused by our findings, faced by something we had not anticipated and forced to look at another set of possibilities – as the myriad colors and sounds, and other voices began to emerge, voices not crying in defeat but singing in relief, in survival, in reflection, in learning. Copyright of Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping is the property of Cleveland State University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the original abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)