The most important thing a counselor can do is to provide a safe space for a person to explore and tell his or her own story. That was the message that Mariel Hemingway, an actress, activist and granddaughter of iconic novelist Ernest Hemingway, delivered to a standing-room-only crowd of counselors during her opening keynote address this morning at the ACA 2015 Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida.

“You help people to find their path, and that is extraordinary,” said Hemingway. “We are not one size fits all. We all have a language that is so unique to ourselves. We are all so unique, so wonderful, so messed up. … Our journey is an onion. You keep peeling away the layers.”

Hemingway has spent her adult life trying to come to grips with both the good and the tragic aspects of her family legacy, from the intense creativity of the Hemingway line to a well-known series of suicides, alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders, depression and other mental illnesses.

“I learned very early on that I was the caretaker [for her family as a child]. I would fix things,” she said. “I wanted to make my life seem perfect, seem like there wasn’t a problem. If I could erase it, it didn’t exist.”

Hemingway, the mother of two grown daughters, said she now feels her mission is to share her story and speak out to help others who are fighting the same battles. She told attendees that she shares her story not because she thinks it is extraordinary but because it is so common — that everyone has a story of struggle and that it is something to celebrate and explore rather than run and hide from.

“There is still so much stigma. The minute you say ‘mental illness,’ people freak out,” she said. “My advice is to keep talking. Be proud of what you do. … I’m honored to be in a room with people like you.”

Hemingway concluded her keynote by answering questions from counselors in the audience. Afterward, she signed books and took photos with attendees.

 

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See images from the ACA Conference & Expo, including Hemingway’s keynote and book signing, at flickr.com/photos/23682700@N04/

 

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Related reading:

See Counseling Today’s Q+A with Hemingway: ct.counseling.org/2015/02/living-with-and-beyond-a-family-legacy-qa-with-mariel-hemingway/

 

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Bethany Bray is a staff writer for Counseling Today. Contact her at bbray@counseling.org

 

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