What is an inner library? ‘We carry with us every story we have ever heard and every story we have ever lived, filed away at some deep place in our memory. We carry most of those stories unread, as it were, until we have grown the capacity or the readiness Read more
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am already lucky to be doing research in such an interesting subject area bringing a variety of disciplines together. The real bonus are the nice folk you come across who are equally passionate about storytelling too. Gratefulness I am extremely grateful to the Read more
Living at the Boundary book review and thoughts. ‘It is a false question whether to repress or not to repress aggression. Since aggression is an indispensable ingredient of human makeup, we have to use it, to develop it into a valuable instrument for the management of our lives.’ (Laura Perls, Read more
Emotional Intelligence is a word banded around a lot these days. My interest in the subject came through stories, and how we connect stories that we hear to our own emotional response. ‘We may ask what is truth in the face of centuries of retelling? The answer lies with experience: Read more
Red and Ralph Red’s story There were certain words that Red’s mother repeated ad nauseam, ‘Don’t eat on the path. Don’t leave the path. Don’t forget your bow and arrows.’ As if any self-respecting young woman on her way to visit a sick relative would prance about picking flowers in Read more
After months of waiting I read Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, by White and Epston, and discovered that it wasn’t particularly relevant to my research. Mainly because it focuses on individual therapy sessions and I am working with groups. However I liked how White and Epston discussed the importance of Read more
Socio-narratology: what is it? ‘People’s access to narrative resources depends on their social location: what stories are told where they live and work, which stories do they take seriously or not, and especially what stories they exchange’ (Frank, 3). I had been looking at socio-psychology as a form of analysis Read more
Great news, The Society for Storytelling is interested in my research and my research aims. Which is to see storytelling in schools throughout the UK. “I’m pleased to confirm that the trustees agreed at last week’s meeting that supporting your research would be a worthwhile cause.” (Chip Colquhoun, Chair). They Read more
A study in advertisements found that people turned off their critical mindset and were more likely to accept ideas when their brain was engaged in a story (Info from Jeremy Hsu, Scientific American, “The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn”). This week I have my first set Read more
‘some methods are more useful for the questions they offer’(Arthur W. Frank, Letting Stories Breathe, p.72) My question is how can traditional storytelling be used to support emotional health? It’s a tough one. The term narrative therapy was coined as a result of the work of two men, Michael White Read more