Digital storytelling as a research tool through a two to four minute film was described by Vacchelli (2018), Lenette et al. (2019), and Willox (2013), who respectively used digital storytelling to reveal the experience of immigrants, refugees, and Native Americans.
 
In the Embodied Digital Storytelling (EDS), a choreography came first and worked as the base for the story.
 
This choreography was created by investigating the body, similarly to Vacchelli (2018), who also used embodied inquiry but instead used collages.
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EDS was created from a premise also seen in research for trauma using yoga, where the body is involved in regulating emotions and holding untold ancestral stories (Cushing & Braum, 2018).
 
Therefore, investigating the body could reveal emotions that have been repressed or historical wounds (Caldwell & Johnson, 2012; LaChiusa, 2016).
 
Each part of the pilot study above was based on a component found in past research that resulted in resiliency, well-being, sense of belonging, sense of home, cultural identity, relational healing, attachment repair, and place attachment. Below, there are 7 more EDS created for the final doctoral dissertation.
 
By choosing EDS as a methodology, this study allowed participants to have a self-directed self-investigation and therefore provided a path for participant’s sense of empowerment.