Philosophy

My philosophy, when it comes to story-telling, involves several core values, essential reasons why I believe storytelling is crucial to humans of all ages.

• Storytelling is a wonderful, dynamic way to unlock our imagination. Storytelling lets us “break the rules” for a little while, so that we can explore beyond the bounds of ordinary life and reality. This is immensely liberating and exciting, both for adults and kids, since our daily lives are bound by structure and rules.
• Storytelling requires our attention, and helps us develop our own inner mental imagery. Unlike watching TV or movies, storytelling requires us to cultivate our own personal imaginative responses and visualizations to go along with an oral narrative. As the teller speaks, we create an internal "film" that goes with the story that they are telling. Audience and Storyteller work in tandem to bring the story to life, but totally individualized from one listener to the next.
• Storytelling introduces notions of problem-solving. Many of the stories I tell involve a character who gets into trouble, and has to think creatively in order to “save” themselves or others. These stories demonstrate how we can use our native intelligence and creativity to work through difficulties we encounter in life. They are what I call "pathways to hope", or "recipes for success."
• Storytelling creates a safe space for exploring issues that are important to us: being silly or absurd, getting into trouble (and out of it), how to be happy (and what to do when we’re not), and what happens when we grow and change.