Begin at the Beginning

Who I am and why I am here.

Hi.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my words. I have decided to turn to Substack in the hope of building a community of people who share my curiosity and love for words, stories, systems and the ‘more than human world.’

I decided to centralise all of my writing here rather than through some of the other platforms I have been using that are underpinned by values I do not support. Here I feel we can jointly build and share. I hope you will build alongside me with words as our tools.

My Story About Words.

As a child I actually struggled to speak and became a selective mute. I attended speech therapy classes and although my tongue learnt to curve and push itself around the shapes of sounds and produce recognisable words my confidence in speaking had disappeared. I was classed as ‘Educationally Sub-normal’ in my primary school as a result of this. It was a heavy story for me to carry as a child, especially as I knew it was not true. Added to this story was also the one of being poor and from a ‘socially-deprived’ council estate and coming from a ‘dysfunctional’ family. I was labelled within a narrative that I could not control and yet I went from this to becoming an international narrative consultant, performance storyteller and the National Storytelling Laureate of the UK. How was that possible?

I truly believe that it was to do with words and stories. Whilst my family were definitely poor in the pocket, we were rich in the mouth and my mom told fantastic stories, as well as many of my aunts and uncles. I was also an early reader and I disappeared into all 12 volumes of Arthur Meads Children’s Encyclopaedia that my father had ‘acquired’ from somewhere. I still remember the glossy illustrations and the stories of King Arthur and the images of the classic fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty. I truly believe these stories offered me a range of identities to try on and a range of worlds and situations to explore that in turn enabled me to develop the skills that I needed in my ‘real’ life. The stories provided me with a golden thread that guided me through the dark and shadowy fairytale forest of my childhood toward a ‘happy ever after.’ The stories made me believe there could be and perhaps would be, a happy ever after, something that I needed when my childhood became dark and unsafe. (Research now supports all of this!)

So, it is no suprise that I now work with stories and with words. I know their power first hand and that knowledge caused me to set up Narrative4Change and take a long- haul, deep-dive into why it is that stories have such power and impact and how we can leverage that to create positive change in our personal and professional lives. I truly believe that everyone has a voice worthy of being heard and a story worthy of being told.

My current work has developed into looking at the systemic systems (deep narratives) that cause us all to think otherwise. I believe that the way to change the compacted hard soil of these deep narratives is through the creation and sharing of stories that challenge them and break up that soil so that new growth can happen.

I am inviting us all to look at ways that we can make that happen and truly, you are the seeds that will cause that soil to split open.

How We Can Work And Grow Together

I truly know that change is possible and that stories are a powerful tool in making that happen. I am going to create newsletters every two weeks that offer you ideas and exercises you can use in your work or personal life. These will be alternate between my reflections on what narratives are around us now and what narratives we carry within us, to practical exercises and methods you can use in your personal or work life. Obviously I want you all to comment and tell me what works for you, any adaptations you might have made and your reflections. I am hungry for your words!

I also want to connect with you all through in-person Zoom events where you can ask questions and we can share ideas. I am really looking forward to this part! I now live in Sweden (CET) but will to ensure I run these at times that work for others too, especially my followers in the States.

Essentially I will be sharing tips and knowledge from my 40 years in this work as well as offering some words of succour to help you on the journey towards being a conscious worker with narrative. If you are keen or curious or excited by any of that, please subscribe. At present there are no paid subscriptions, all of this is free.

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