“Self-healing is a fundamental human capacity that anyone can cultivate, and understanding how we survived can help us heal.”
Jen Grob D'Souza, Founder
Self-healing Expression
Life stories humanize and integrate our experiences, nurturing the connections we need to thrive.
Connect, Co-create Context, Express Yourself, & Heal.
FirstPerson Narratives Foundation (FirstPerson) supports healing-centered life story development for adults who experienced Family System Trauma (FST) in childhood.
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FirstPerson provides invitation-only grants, flexible funding, and capacity-building resources to arts-based nonprofits. We partner with organizations that create pathways for identity exploration—cultivating the safety people need to reclaim their sense of self.
We use Family System Trauma (FST) as a general term to describe the multilayered impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and chronic stress within parent-child relationships. FST is inter-generational, and can result in relational, attachment, and developmental trauma.
The FirstPerson Model
Our approach recognizes the inherent resilience of adults who experienced FST, acknowledging their ability to navigate complex experiences despite limited support for neuro-developmental safety and connection. Instead of pathologizing what happened, we empower Players (participants) to lead their healing journeys and transform adversity into strength.
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Life stories come alive in multiple formats — from intimate disclosures, to performances on podcasts, to documentary films, visual art, and songs. We create meaningful connections between storytellers and listeners, fostering empathy and making healing practices more accessible to wider audiences.
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FirstPerson Toolkits
FirstPerson Toolkits provide evidence-based frameworks for collaborative expressive arts experiences. Through structured learning approaches that integrate physical, mental, and social well-being, partner organizations can create safe, nurturing spaces where Players explore life storytelling initiatives that foster:
Peer Support and Collaboration
Players come together in supportive groups to share knowledge, connect meaningfully, and practice healing-centered strategies they can use every day.
Co-creating a foundation for safety and connection
Feeling safe improves how we feel, think, and operate. Together, Players co-create a sense of safety and connection within the group that supports their capacity to center themselves and stay grounded in the present.
Internal resourcing
When Players feel safe, they can connect with their needs, feel their feelings, strengthen their internal resources, process and express their experiences, and release physically stored stress.
Co-creating Context
Through co-facilitated, experiential learning strategies, Players gain insights by examining their lived experiences and ancestral influences within broader cultural and systemic contexts. Using visual thinking and story framing techniques, they map out, deconstruct, and make meaning of their past experiences, while developing essential skills in communication, critical thinking, perspective-taking, collaboration, self-direction, and reinvention. This comprehensive approach enhances their capacity for verbal expression and creates legacies.
Brain-body integration
We integrate movement, emotional awareness, and expressive activities so Players can safely process difficult experiences and release their hurt in healing ways. This approach helps Players holistically reintegrate the parts of their brain deeply affected by FST, resulting in a better understanding of their lives and the people they came from.
Self-expression using more than words
Players find their voice through expressive art-making. Through various practices, they cultivate a coherent narrative identity—exploring the spectrum of ways to reconstruct and re-story their legacy with a renewed sense of agency, purpose, and belonging.
Changing the narrative
Players use healing-centered storytelling and asset-framing principles to transform narratives from problem-focused to person- and strength-centered. Through this approach, the voice of Lived Experience transcends stigma and pathology.
Intergenerational healing
Players develop skills and use tools that help break cycles of intergenerational trauma and create positive changes for future generations.
Let's Connect
Join us in co-creating healing-centered storytelling initiatives. We seek to learn from and collaborate with thought leaders, wellbeing practitioners, teaching artists, program advisors, and other contributors involved in healing-centered engagement. Contact us to learn more, fill out the form, or email development@first-person.org.