Storytelling and Adventure Therapy

IMG_2128I spent much of last week attending the Fifth International Adventure Therapy Conference.  Not surprisingly, narratives and storytelling have found their way into this field.

Paul Stolz (Evolve at Typo Station) and Cathryn Carpenter (Deakin University), both in Australia, spoke about their use of narrative therapy approaches to working with young people “in the bush”.  I also attended a workshop that Paul Stolz gave which provided more detail on the subject and allowed us some hands-on experience with narrative practices.

I also attended a workshop specifically on storytelling, adventure therapy and outdoor education led by Tonia Gray (University of Wollongong) and Kaz Stuart (University of Cumbria).  Tonia and Kaz talked a little bit about how they use storytelling in their practices in Australia and England respectively and then we got to do some storytelling, and storylistening, of our own.  Tonia uses storytelling with her university-level outdoor education students and Kaz uses storytelling in adventure programming mainly with business groups.

It was one of those conferences with concurrent talks, and I was not able to attend every day anyway, so I only got a sample of what is going on in the world of adventure (sometimes called wilderness) therapy.  There were probably other references to stories made in other sessions that I missed.  For example, I missed Bonnie Dyck’s presentation on incorporating narrative approaches to working with families in Alberta, Canada.

I believe that stories are important to healing ourselves and our relationships with the more-than-human world.  Adventure and wilderness therapies provide people with novel experiences, narrative approaches and storytelling help people to integrate those experiences into new stories of who they are and what they can do.

Storywalk at the Newbattle Abbey Storytelling Festival

nba storywalk2

Two weeks after I arrived in Scotland, I spent a weekend learning to tell stories at Newbattle Abbey College, just south of Edinburgh.  I fell in love with the place right then and there and I was sad when I completed the second weekend of coursework, fearing my relationship with the college was over.

Fortunately, I was wrong.  Upon hearing me wax poetical on the beautiful old trees in the college grounds, Donald Smith, the Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, offered me the opportunity to work with him on a storywalk for the college’s inaugural storytelling festival.

This past weekend we led visitors on a tour of the ancient trees of the house’s parklands and the scenic beauty of its woods, telling stories as we went.  It was an opportunity to pay tribute to one of Scotland’s ancient sycamore trees, which has now passed on to that great forest in the sky.  And also to share traditional tales such as Hind Etin and Robin Hood in a wood much like the woodlands in which those tales take place.  With ancient trees, a medieval bridge, a 16th century manor house, remnants of a 12th century abbey and a monk’s cell all within easy walking distance, it was simple to bring the past alive in people’s imaginations.

Storywalks are an excellent way to connect people with places on intellectual, emotional and experiential levels.  Mixing stories about history with traditional tales keeps such walks from getting monotonous and separates storywalks from guided tours.  Stories can be kept shorter and simpler than those told indoors since the setting is already there to be experienced by all the senses.

Earlier this year I attended an esoteric presentation by Bernard Anson Silj on storygardenz.  Even after sitting through the slides and the talking, I am unable to state clearly what Silj means by the term.  However, I think that Newbattle Abbey College and its 125 acres of grounds must be a storygardenz, because every step I take there and every moment I spend there invokes and inspires stories.

Links

Newbattle Abbey is Scotland’s only residential adult education college.  The grounds are open to the public and guided tours of the house are offered on Sundays during the summer.

For photos of the ancient sycamore, see Rae McGhee’s story about the day it died.

A variety of courses are offered at the college including Contemporary Oral Storytelling.

For more information on storygardenz see Bernard Anson Silj’s site.

The Scottish Storytelling Centre can be found behind John Knox’s house on the Royal Mile of Edinburgh.

Storylistening Podcast Added: Emily Dodd Speaks about Inspiring Children to Care about Seabirds

IMG_1542_2On a sunny Monday morning, I took a short train ride out to North Berwick to visit the Scottish Seabird Centre and talk to Emily Dodd about using storytelling in environmental education.  When I arrived, a school group was just packing up their lunches after a fun-filled few hours at the Centre hearing stories, seeing seabirds live on special webcams, and learning about the environmental issues that are affecting puffins and gannets.

Emily Dodd is the education officer at the Seabird Centre.  Thanks to her efforts to put together an enjoyable and informative program for children, the Seabird Centre has been having to turn away schools.  There is more demand than the Centre can meet during this, their busy spring nesting season.  This increase in demand has allowed them to expand begin booking school groups for the Autumn season, when seals come to give birth in the Firth of Forth.

Emily has also been able to reach a wider audience through using GLOW, a digital network that links up schools across Scotland.  In March she told her Percy the Puffin story to over 1000 children at 60 schools from the Shetland islands to the Borders, via GLOW.

In my interview with her, Emily Dodd speaks about the uses of storytelling live, and via the internet, to teach children science and to awaken in them a desire to protect and care for the birds we share this country with.

Storytelling is used at the Seabird Centre during school visits, mainly with early years children, and with the public in monthly “Storytime by the Sea” sessions at 2:30 in the Discovery Centre on the first Friday of each month.

My interview with Emily Dodd can be heard on the Storylistening page.

Emily Dodd can be reached via the Scottish Seabird Centre’s education pages.