Story Shepherds
An ancient protocol for healthcare of the soul and body grounded in evidence based science.
“It’s as though I get to live my life over again, but this time with meaning.”
–Story Shepherd John Bibb Hickman
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If a medicine could heal trauma, restore our
humanity, build community, transform reality,
lift our depression, end isolation, resolve conflict,
boost immunity, reduce pain, heal the world,
and end war would you take it?
This medicine exists. It is stored in our untold stories.
To heal, we go back into our lives and tell.
This is what we call shepherding our stories. This is where your journey begins.
-Laura Hope-Gill, founder of The Story Shepherds
Until the close of the 18th century, Bardic Schools in Ireland, and with counterparts across cultures, educated doctors, poets, and storytellers together. Today, clinical evidence supports this ancient method for healing ourselves and each other by shepherding our stories.
The Story Shepherds invoke our shared ancestry of storytellers who have all explored their stories as a vital part of becoming whole. Until we look back into the labyrinth of our tale, we feel it calling to us, beckoning us to draw from it medicine we need.
Clinical Medicine and Neuroscience now prove that the ancestors were right.
It’s time to cease pathologizing our stories and trying to fit, keep up, and pretend we’re happy. It’s time to connect with gentleness, sweetness, kindness, vulnerability, quiet, sensitivity, and reflection.
Story Shepherd sessions
Embark on a journey of discovery with us, where every story is a new door to wellness, wholeness, curiosity, and meaning. Open up. Stay open. Heal.
Story Staircase
A quiet beginning to entering the terrain of your story. Guided with care by a shepherd, you will feel safe and supported as you begin your climb up the mountain of your life.
The Story Circle
Story Shepherds will gather us for a session of storytelling where we each have ten or fifteen minutes to share a moment of our life. These are not performances. They are sharings in a circle of shepherds on the path to the Shepherds’ Way.
The Story Circle cont.
Pushing the Boat Out
A time comes when we are ready to move more deeply. Our stories now want to be brought out of the dark and explored. We feel more confident in opening them. In this series of sessions, your shepherd will listen as you tell, holding their heart open to hold your words.
Shepherds’ Way
A Shepherds’ Way is a way to be in our lives with attention to the stories that have made us, and the stories we are making every moment. As simple as it sounds (for it is), this transforms so very, very much. It does not take a long time to find your own Shepherds’ Way. Once you do, you know how beautiful, and brave, it is.
What People Say
“This is a once in a generation shot at empathically driven peace.”
Dr. Harlan Joel Gradin, Scholar Emeritus, North Carolina Humanities Council
“Stories have been shown to heal within the medical environment (hence the term, Narrative Medicine, now a recognized discipline). Modern (scientific) medicine offers hope of cure, but often fails to relieve suffering. Narrative Medicine fills this gap. Stories can heal in the non-medical environment as well. This project expands Laura’s work with marginalized populations to make the healing virtue of stories accessible to all.“
Dr. Carol Scott-Conner, M.D. M.B.A. M.F.A., Surgeon (ret.) and Professor, University of Iowa Carver School of Medicine
story shepherds sessions March 2024
Unfoldings and Listenings will be posted here soon.
| Shepherd Session Date | Theme | Location/Zoom | Register | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday March 20, 2024 | World Storytelling Day | Zoom link sent to registrants on Eventbrite; the event is by donation 100% to support facilitators. | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/story-shepherds-session-tickets-861245196567 | This is not performance. Sweet, sad, joyful, quiet stories welcome. They just have to be yours (truly). |
| Sunday March 23, 2024 | ||||
| Sunday March 30, 2024 | ||||
| (Sunday April 6, 2024) |
Story Shepherds 