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Story telling Friday was Christmas Sparkle my storytelling event for Warwick postgrads with Colin King. As we sat there will mulled wine and mince pies Colin amused us with amusing, spooky and local stories. Originally from Ireland Colin went from teacher to storyteller. He also works with schools to make subjects interesting for their students. Feedback: “The storyteller was very good and I really liked the ancient folktales about Warwickshire and Ireland. Thanks for organising the event!” “It was very enjoyable.” Webinar Also took part in a seminar via a webcam between Warwick University and Monash University in Australia. This was organised by Celia Bennett Bernstein and Josette (from Warwick), Carlos and Nicholas (from Monash). Celia is doing work on dystonia (uncontrollable and sometimes painful muscle spasms caused by incorrect signals from the brain). Please see TheDystonia Society for more information. Discussions were around Foucault’s ideas of ...

December 3 rd Warwick University Writer’s department hosted poet Michael Farrell from Australia. I liked the narrative style of his most recent stuff. Had a conversation with him at the end about the poem Juggle which I thought was called Jungle, as I heard lots of jungle imagery in it, and was carried away by my own internal narrative and his words. It was fascinating hearing him talk about his techniques as a writer (which sometimes involve chance, like throwing a dice). I was interested in poetry as a verbal language… in my experience of hearing poetry it comes to life in a way that it doesn’t on the page. However Farrell challenged this perception because his form is very visually represented on the page. I was also lucky to attend storytelling performances by MA students of Drama and Theatre Education on 5 th December at Warwick’s Avon studio.   The performed stories were The Good Daughter, Rapunzel, Persephone, Nezha, Emperor’s New Clothes and Bluebeard. I particularly l...

Poet and biography Harry Ricketts was at Warwick University on Tuesday 27th December to talk about his new book Strange Meetings . As he talked about the process of writing the book I was struck by how much fiction and nonfiction intertwine in their techniques and challenges. Writing involves thinking about perspective, and there are many angles this could take. Framing a book with real meetings and links between a select number of war poets is an intriguing idea and the book reads very well. The highpoint for me was hearing the poem Quarantine Island. A strange choice perhaps, but the following words reminded me of this strange process called a PhD. 'There will be days of sudden calm, nights when stars burn into your head. World turns strange and yet the same.' It was fascinating to have a chat with him afterwards about the process of writing as I hope to use poetry in some form in my creative piece. Folktales often have rhymes and lines of poetry within them, and I...

I’ve been spending the last month focusing in on methodology. I’ve returned this week to the concept of emotional intelligence. This time looking more critically at the idea and the abilities I wish to focus on in respect to what can I measure in terms of emotional abilities. Empathy is a definite skill and worth further reading. I’ve also begun promoting an event at Warwick University. An hour of wintery tales from Irish storyteller Colin King. This is a free event for postgraduated students made possible with support from the Research Student Skills Programme and the department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. I’m hoping to get students to share their stories after the main event and hope that it will be a success.

I just got back from Edinburgh. Went to the Scottish Storytelling Festival for the chance to meet Joanna Geyer Kordesch, who is researching Science, Medicine and the Arts of Illness with funding from the Wellcome Trust. Sadly she is not very well and was unable to attend her workshops last week. Donald Smith, Director of the Storytelling Centre, led the discussions stating very eloquently that 'the way we experience the world is closer to imagination than to a realistic science model. In the way that we view the world is very different from that experience.'   The group discussed health and states of mind with some of the group sharing wonderful personal stories.   Kordesch believes that 'Narrative description is subjective and orientated on the individual’s attempt to understand experience'. To improve the health care system we need to work with each person's story, treating mind and body as a complete whole. Mental states of illness are about rela...

This month my task is to clarify my research questions and methods in greater detail. Today I mind mapped all the ideas I had and formed some questions as follows: Overall research question: Does traditional storytelling have an effect on adolescent emotional aptitude (that is emotional ability) This then breaks down into a set of sub-questions: 1/ How can we measure if the emotional aptitude of adolescents changes or remains the same in response to storytelling? 2/ What processes may be occurring between the storyteller and the listener that work with or against emotional aptitude? How can these be used in a creative piece? 3/ How can storytelling be compared to reading and writing? 4/ Does storytelling have an effect on social relationships at the individual, group and community level? Creative piece: As a creative experiment I will refer to the adolescents' thoughts from this research to inspire short stories with themes of emotional aptitude, blending reality and...

I’ve now officially got access to everything at Warwick. And there are some great training courses I can go on in the Comparative literature and Sociology departments. On qualitative and quantitative methods. At present I’m focused on applying to funding through Warwick and the Chancellor’s Fund, though it is highly competitive I hope I’ll be able to demonstrate all the hard work I’ve put in this year. There isn't much part time work available unfortunately. But looking for something linked to my research such as in a school or department at the university. I had a great meeting with Marcia Harvey, a regional participation manager at Youngminds on Friday. She is doing some amazing work with groups in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the surrounding areas. I’m hoping that there may be potential to work together on some common goals in the future.

‘what we are born with is what worked best for the last 50,000 human generations’ (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence , p5)   In Emotional Intelligence Goleman discusses what happens when ‘passions overwhelm reason.’ Our reactions to the world around us have evolved over time. These ‘automatic reactions’ are extremely important in dangerous situations. Reactions that don’t always make logical sense, such as the two parents that gave up their lives to rescue their daughter in a train crash; but it could be argued biological and emotional sense. They saved her to protect their genes, as Dawkins might say, and the way this decision was reached was through love. Goleman called emotions ‘impulses to act’, determined by biological and cultural acts: unconsciously when you feel tenderness or love towards a person the body undergoes a relaxation response ‘a general state of calm and contentment’; and how we display this emotion is also determined by our culture. In this...

Here is a link to my ebook:- Temptation and Mozarella published by Thistleinthekiss (Edinburgh).

‘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 to read them. When that happens they may come back to us filled with unexpected meaning.’ (Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom , xli) Remen’s words touch on the idea of an ‘inner library’ which is expressed in Arthur W. Frank’s book, Letting Stories Breathe a Socio-narratology . They articulate a similar notion, that we may carry the kernel of a story with us for a long time until something triggers its memory and in doing so uncovers new meaning. When the right conditions prevent themselves old ideas we have carried with us but never really understood, acknowledged, or accepted, take root; blossoming into a new series of neural networks that can forever altar the idea of who we are. Story and the human brain have grown together over a long time. In our ...

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.   I am extremely grateful to the Society for Storytelling for providing me with a letter of support to aid my fundraising (see copy below). Youngminds for expressing an interest in my work. And the Adam Smith Institute for donating £250 towards my PhD. I had a meeting today with Professor Mike Wilson , University College Falmouth. His current research focuses on digital storytelling. He did some previous work on oral narrative and adolescents. More information to follow in a future blog! That's all for now. If you would like to support my work, or have any questions, please get in touch.   Society for Storytelling The Morgan Library Aston Street Wem SY4 5AU   09 Au...

‘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, Living at the Boundary , p43) Although the quote above focuses on aggression another emotion could be substituted in its place. Our current frame of mind works on the forces of motivation behind our actions (suppressed or not). Perls’ chapter on ‘How to Educate Children for Peace’ raises some interesting ideas. I don’t agree with all of them. For example Perls discusses how the suppression of aggression could lead to intellectual inhibition with negative effects on critical thinking. She argues that by supressing children we are teaching them to surrender their insight and will to others. Her arguement is centered on extreme situations. I believe that there is a danger of suppression in an environment where home, school, society all act ...

‘We may ask what is truth in the face of centuries of retelling? The answer lies with experience: as long as a tale is told, it has meaning (truth), will evoke response and can be understood.’ (Alida Gersie and Nancy King. Storymakingin Education and Therapy , p29) I’ve had to change methods a few times this week as NVivo is not as user friendly, or flexible, as I’d hoped. Coding is complicated. And have you ever noticed how highly complicated emotions are? I have become emersed in lines of text, gone in the wrong direction, realised things weren’t working, and reined myself in to ask, what am I looking for exactly? How can I make this project more specific and manageable? I’ve also been reading up on emotional intelligence (EI). EI has been defined by D. Goleman as ‘Being able to motivate one-self and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empath...

I can now confirm my guest blog for Youngminds is active via the following link: http://www.youngminds.org.uk/news/blog/979_mental_health_and_story_telling They asked me to write about the inspiration that got me interested in a PhD linked to mental health.

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 imagination. It is through communication of their “story” that individuals are able to externalise thoughts. This begins the process of reforming the meaning around certain events in order to ‘revise their relationship with the problem’ (p63). Verbalising allows recognition that what is causing distress quite often is a miss-match of our story with how things are, or how we would like them to be. A letting go of the need to control others, of expecting others to act in a certain way; an understanding of what we feel, why, and how to process it. These things take time to reshape in the brain. While my study hopes to examine the changes that occur in adolescent’s emotions as a r...

‘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 when Jack Zipes suggested a book that he had just reviewed himself. ‘This is a splendid book, and anyone who takes storytelling seriously should find the time to explore’ (Jack Zipes, Living Through Stories, Review by email, April 2012). I had already heard a few people mention Arthur W. Frank’s book The Wounded Storyteller , but this one seemed more relevant for my research. I didn’t know anything about dialogical narrative analysis prior to reading this book. Like socio-narratology, dialogical analysis includes what a story does, how it connects and disconnects people, and that there are numerous possibilities when it comes to interpretation. Socio-narratology is practiced via dialogical analy...

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 are going to sign a letter of support to help me fund raise. At present I am seeking funding from 2013 to cover my 2nd and 3rd PhD years. With funding being so competitive this year I am thinking of new ways to raise funds. For example I am looking into a collaborative project with others. Being involved in research with more experienced persons is very exciting. I have already learnt a great deal and look forward to what is ahead--despite it being challenging. More information will follow once something is confirmed.

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 of data. A local school, and parents, kindly allowed me and a volunteer storyteller to do a test run. Cornish storyteller, Mike O’Connor, wowed kids and adults alike with his fiddle playing and acting techniques. Teachers were sneaking in at the back, out of curiosity in the first week. After each tale the students discussed what they thought of the stories, and how they could relate them to their life. I have now finished transcribing their conversation. This took a lot longer than anticipated. Unfortunately now I’m waiting for IT to fix access problems with NVivo. This computer analysis software will allow me to search for patterns in the student’s word usage over the five week period...

‘some methods are more useful for the questions they offer’(Arthur W. Frank, LettingStories Breathe , p72) 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 and David Epston (see Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends ). Though they didn’t want to be associated with any formal definitions. What exactly they did, I don’t know yet, because I am waiting for their book to come into the library. However in my search, of what felt like every periodic journal in an electronic maze, I found Pennebaker. In the United States, Pennebaker took the idea of narrative and health further by attempting to test it empirically. He and his colleagues did experiments on writing therapy and discovered that writing had a positive effect on not just mental but also physical health! Which brings me to another question, how do we test this? Pennebaker used qualitative dat...