What is the Untold Stories process?

Over the past couple of years I have developed this process which I call ‘Untold Stories’, I have tried it out online and in-person in groups and also 1:1 and I find it to be remarkably effective transformational and liberating tool.

Untold Stories is for anyone who feels drawn to using creative writing to explore the deep and difficult stuff. We look at shame, taboo, secrets, vulnerability and fear, drawing on ‘what’s keeping us awake at night’ and what we are stuffing down during the day.

Living in Orgiva, a small community of people, where everyone knows everyone else, I found it necessary to develop a way that people could work through their intensely personal processes without feeling the need to self censor or the pressure to disclose.

I was interested to see that this did not take away from the depth of the group process and in fact it fostered a sense of support and companionship and mutual respect as each worked with their own ‘Untold Story’

In essence, give a combination of instructions, layering somatic practices with writing and drawing practices that allow the unconscious to speak and shine a different light on seemingly damaging and intractable past events.

This process allows a healing backwards and forwards in time so that the person finds that they can be more present, lighter and joyful.

As a midwife, I find the atmosphere in the room to be very like that of the birth room: (We are talking home birth here!) There is work to be done and it is intense but it has purpose and if left to their own devices the person actually knows what to do.

Some people will find that they want to share their story with trusted friends, either in the group or at home, some people go on to use their writing as the basis for a story, poem or song, each person finds what is right for them, with no expectations.

Once learnt this process can be used as an effective tool, whenever you are wrestling with something, feeling caught in negative repetitive stories or guarding a heavy secret.

It essentially moves you from victim of your life to author.

I am inspired by the work of James Pennebaker, Marion Woodman, Nik Askew

I was a precocious child, reading Little Women and Anne of Green Gables when I was six and writing 20 page stories aged 7.

I have also kept a diary my whole life, It’s only been in the past few years that I realised that this practice of ‘getting it down on paper’ (plus my cat Lucy) probably kept me sane growing up in a very dysfunctional environment.