Native American
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Storytelling or Therapy? by Kate Smith
I’ve been telling! Lies. Stories. Fables. Myths. And the occasional cautionary tale. [i] I’ve told stories on stage for over ten years, but I hadn’t received any formal training. I’m a lawyer – we craft narratives. I’ve done veteran advocacy and spoken with members of Congress and held press conferences. Along the way, I’ve had…
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Next Generation Storyteller by Shakera Robinson
I love to perform, although I can literally feel butterflies starting to form in my belly just thinking about it. It makes me so nervous but once I find my groove it’s like I take off. I’ve been performing for as long as I can remember. I remember being a young girl between five and…
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Managing Public Speaking Anxiety by Bryce Barraza
So, you’ve spent the last several weeks crafting and learning your story, but now you find the thought of telling your story in front of people terrifying –and you’re actually thinking you may not tell your story. Do me a favor: drop that thought! You can overcome that sense of terror and tell a great…
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Learning to See Our Own Lives as a Story for Others by Manuela Moeller
“Everything happens for a reason.” I’ve never believed in that saying. Some things that happen to us are cruel and senseless, and no amount of reflection will ever justify them. But through the process of working with personal stories – my own and those shared by others – I’ve found myself shifting toward a new…
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Storytelling is Fun! by Amy MacPherson
Today I was reading Margo Leitman’s book Long Story Short, and she has an activity that she asks storytellers to think of a movie or television program and a character that they identify with—not a character they wish to be, but a character they identify with. This really struck me because I think if you…
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Have you planned for ‘Post Retirement Self Employment’? by Connie Galeener
Retirement is soon upon me ! While some people make think retirement looks like anything from “Active retirement living on your own terms.” to ” Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”. I didn’t know my grandparents, and my own parents raised their tenth child in their 50’s. Dad retired to care for her…
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Where Professionalism Meets Personal Courage by Maria Valenzuela
Finding clarity, confidence, and freedom through storytelling.Last week in class, I shared a story I’ve carried quietly for the last year, the story of being fired. For a long time, even saying the words felt heavy. Growing up, getting fired wasn’t something people talked about openly; it carried a quiet shame, a belief that Imust…
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How Rescue Dogs Taught Me to Tell Better Stories by Courtney Anderson
Storytelling Began in the Clouds I have always loved storytelling. As a child, my favorite and earliest memories with my dad are of us laying on our backs in the backyard grass, finding objects in the clouds and telling stories. He had a handful of good ones that I would ask him to tell me…
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The Alchemy of Storytelling by Natalie Rivera
Storytelling is magical and healing. We all have more than one story inside of us. It seems as if our soul is the gatekeeper of what story is meant to be shared. The gatekeeper then somehow knows what people to bring together to hear the story. There seems to be some sort of alchemy between…
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Storytelling isn’t (and shouldn’t be) therapy, but it sure feels like it’s good for me! by Jessica Foreman
What can I say? Personal storytelling is harder than I expected. It asks a lot of the teller: to recall memories, to shape them in a way that is coherent and engaging, and to consider how an audience might receive them. It asks us to share parts of ourselveswith others, which on the surface sounds…
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Learning to Love Stories by CJ Liguori
Growing up I found stories really boring. Even though I had the ability to follow a plot and recall key details, I just didn’t find experiencing a story to be all that interesting. I would put off reading for my 4th grade reading log. When playing video games, I would skip dialogue and cut scenes,…
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Sharing the Stories of Our Existence by Coral J. Evans
Stories possess the power to heal, divide, delight, and sadden those who hear them. Having worked in interdisciplinary fields that aim to uplift, enhance, and support the human experience, I believe storytelling is one of the most profound ways to achieve this. I grew up surrounded by stories—tales from the Bible, Greek and African mythology,…