CONTEXT – – – EMOTIONAL INHERITANCE WRITING WORKSHOP 1/16/23

“The people we love and those who raised us live inside us; we experience their emotional pain, we dream their memories, and these things shape our lives in ways we don’t always recognize. Emotional Inheritance is about family secrets that keep us from living to our full potential, create gaps between what we want for ourselves and what we are able to have, and haunt us like ghosts.” Emotional Inheritance Galit Atlas, PhD [Jacket Cover]

“Names are a significant part of one’s identity. In first sessions, I usually ask people about the meaning of their names, inquire who chose the names for them and why, and wonder if there are specific meanings or stories associated with their names. Names are connected to emotions, the hopes parents have for their child, who they think the child will become or want the child to become. A name reflects the parents’ feelings about having that child. It contains remembrances from the past as well as a vision of the future.” Emotional Inheritance Galit Atlas, PhD [page 106]

WRITING WORKSHOP EXERCISE

Think upon your own name (the one given to you at birth or the one you’ve given yourself since) Focus on its parts (first, middle, last, nickname, Jr? Sr?) How do you feel about your own name? What stories arise? What symbols arise? What emotions arise? What name might you choose for yourself in a witness protection program? How has your name effected your character and/or your being?