Stories That Shape Us:The Stories We Inherit and the Healing We Choose
Friday May 23rd: A Live Webinar Hosted by the Allender Center Featuring Lisa Sharon Harper in conversation with Linda Royster, LCMHC
How do the generational stories we inherit shape who we become? And what does it take to reclaim those stories today for healing, grounding, and generational resilience?
Join the Allender Center for a powerful two-hour conversation with renowned speaker, author, and activist Lisa Sharon Harper and therapist and trauma recovery specialist Linda Royster as they explore the deep connections between generational trauma, resilience, and the stories that form our sense of identity.
Drawing from her book Fortune, Lisa will share personal discoveries from her three-decade journey to uncover ten generations of her family history—stories of both profound resilience and devastating loss, rooted in the systems of race, gender, and power that have shaped American life. Together, Lisa and Linda will invite us into a path of truth-telling, healing, and hopeful action, especially for those navigating the legacies of oppression and the felt disruptions of today.
Whether you are part of a racially marginalized community or someone seeking to engage these realities with greater clarity and care, this webinar will offer an honest, deeply embodied, and faith-rooted invitation to:
Reconnect with the power of your family story and its connection to systems of resilience and oppression
Consider the role of Shalom—a grounded, holistic state of flourishing and belonging—as the starting point for healing
Explore how truth-telling and generational repair can reshape not only personal narratives but collective futures
Lisa and Linda will guide us through the emotional and spiritual weight of confronting painful truths, the physiological cost of carrying untold stories, and the courageous work of breaking with destructive patterns for the sake of a truer, freer future.
This 2-hour webinar is for those longing to feel more rooted, more whole, and more empowered to care for themselves and their communities.
Live attendees will also have the opportunity to submit questions to Lisa and Linda during a moderated Q&A.
Reserve your spot today.
The Stories We Inherit and the Healing We Choose
with Lisa Sharon Harper and Linda Royster, LCMHC
Streaming Live Friday, May 23, 2025
1:00pm - 3:00pm PT/ 4:00 - 6:00 PM ET
Includes lifetime recorded access to the webinar recording
The Narrative Gap, as coined by Lisa Sharon Harper, is the distance between the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, including how we got here and what it will take to make things right. In our world today, competing narratives vie for our loyalty, dividing society and the church, therefore making justice impossible. Our mission is help communities shrink the narrative gap, by identifying core issues and building community capacity so they might work toward common solutions for a just world. Here on the Freedom Road Substack, we can converse together on ways to shrink that narrative gap and help ensure everyones’ stories are told.
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