Every life is a story, says Mandy Aftel, a psychotherapist with nearly twenty years' experience working with artists and writers. We tell the stories of our lives to friends and neighbors, on job interviews and blind dates, at slumber parties and in therapy. Too often, though, the stories we tell - and live - are cliches, simplistic tales of blame, guilt, hopelessness, and anger that limit our understanding of the past and close off possibilities for the future. "That's the story of my life," we say when things go wrong-again.