Podcasts Featuring Nancy & Tail of the Bell
What’s it all about?
Podcast host, Nancy Allen, shares her personal story of father-daughter incest and her motivations behind Tail of the Bell.
What’s the F****** Point Podcast
by Valerie K Martin
I'm not gonna sugarcoat this, y'all — today's episode is a tough one. But it's also SO important and so incredibly worth the emotional energy.
Episode Notes
Also, CONTENT WARNING on this one, friends. The subject matter deals with sexual abuse and suicide. Nancy handles these delicate topics like the pro that she is (and like someone who’s done a lot of therapy, which she has.) But please, listen to your intuition to decide whether these topics feel okay for you to listen to — and if not, skip the episode and I’ll see you at #43!
As I said to Nancy during the interview, one of the things I learned early on as a therapist is that incest is way more common than we think. And of course, most of us have heard the distressing stats around sexual abuse in general — which we talk about in the episode as well, and I learned something new about it that surprised me.
This is not stuff we want to talk about, but it’s stuff we NEED to talk about. And Nancy's story is also evidence of the incredible power of resilience, and overcoming the kind of adversity that seems insurmountable.
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2160
Tonight's special guest is Nancy S. Allen from Dawsonville, Georgia, a survivor of father-daughter incest.
"Today I say that sentence in a strong voice without shame," Nancy says, "but that was not always the case. For much of my life, I hid that secret and felt different, unworthy, misunderstood and alone."
Physically and emotionally abused from early childhood, at age 14 Nancy was briefly mandated into a kinship foster care placement by social services, a year after the abuse turned sexual. This removal and related court-ordered “punishment” of therapy made Nancy feel she was equally at fault as her father. Soon after her return home, the incest resumed, and escalated over the next decade.
When Nancy was 28, her father died, and her repressed world exploded. She checked herself into an acute psychiatric hospital to begin her healing. Nancy’s focus is to help create a world where incest survivors have a different life experience than she did.
She wants to champion others to say “I am an incest survivor” without shame, guilt, or fear of repercussions, and to open a dialogue which removes the societal taboo of acknowledging and discussing incest. Nancy recently launched a weekly podcast called 'Tail of the Bell', which focuses on specific topics interpreted through a featured incest survivor's personal story. Nancy relates, “from the decades of horrific trauma, extensive tragedy, and glorious life experiences, I have evolved into an empathetic, capable, and successful leader, mentor, and benefactor.”