Go Tell it On the Mountain
Storytelling for healing and change

Practicalities

Dates: Friday 4, Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 November 2022 

Times: 1 pm – 5 pm UK time.  Please log on from 12.45 to check your equipment works and allow up to 30 minutes after the end of the workshop in case we run over a little bit. 

Where: Online using Zoom

Cost: £169 if booked by 4 Sept 2022, £189 if booked by 4 Oct 2022.  Full price thereafter: £205  CLICK HERE TO BOOK

CPD: The course will give you a CPD certificate for 12 hours

Maximum Numbers: 32 people

This workshop will give you tools, tips and strategies from one of the top contemporary storytellers working today to help you become more fluent and confident in both creating and telling stories.

“The course was excellent. 
It was superbly facilitated to create an environment where it was
safe to experiment and participants could learn from each other.
Thanks very much!”

— Steve Killick – storyteller and clinical psychologist

We will be working in a deep yet playful way in order to bring us home to story once more. The workshop is aimed at everyone. Those who love story, those who want to use it professionally with their clients,  and those who want to facilitate story sessions with their families and children.

In the online courses that Michael has been leading since the arrival of Covid, his participants have told him that, apart from the disease itself and its direct impact, what they miss most is landscape, nature and other people in community.  Through storytelling and story-making we can create those things once more and practice weaving story and magic for when we can be together in the same place again. Now is a good time to start thinking about and planning how we take up where we left off and incorporate what we have learned over the last year to continue with community, creativity and joy.

 

“The most beneficial use of time and money I can remember spending.
I made so much progress in such a short time.”

— Jonathan Lambert, storyteller and musician.

Who is this workshop designed for:  The general public.  Everyone.  Including therapists, counsellors and healers of all kinds.

What will I get?

• A bank of stories, told by Michael, to use yourself
• Creative story activities led by a leading practitioner
• Tried and trusted methods of creating original narrative based on traditional story patterns
• Key storytelling tools for honing and telling your story
• The creative stimulation and support of cohort and small-group activities
• A dedicated course website where you can view selected recordings of the sessions and guidance notes so that you can go on to create and tell stories stories yourself or with groups once the course is over

What should I bring?

You’ll be asked to

• collect a few objects,
• some simple art materials and have
• pen and paper handy.

Full details will be sent once you have signed up.

Why now? Making and sharing stories now will prepare us to enter and engage with whatever the next version of ‘normal’ will be when the time comes.  The narrative arcs, symbols and characters will be there to remind us of who we are when the going gets tough or we get disorientated.  We’re all going to get busier soon and we need to get the tools and skills ready to keep ourselves creative, supple, joyful and human.

Can this work online? To our surprise, Michael has found that the cohort experience online is even stronger than in conventional courses and that the continuation is more sustained once the teaching sessions are over. We will be using whole group learning and breakout rooms for more collaborative work and doing some easy and playful work with objects and mark-making to give our brains a rest from words.  The key teaching and exercises in the course will be available to you after the course is over on a dedicated learning platform.

 

“An inspiring training event led by superb storyteller“

Getting to Grips with Story.  Traditional narrative patterns are superficially simple. They often have a single protagonist who encounters a major difficulty, which gets even more serious and is eventually resolved. It sounds simple, so why is it so difficult to pull off in a satisfying way?

Part of the problem is that our education has taught us that there are wrong and right answers and stories fall under the heading of ‘literature’ which is the preserve of well-read and erudite people who ‘understand’ it. The stories we will be working with are not part of ‘education’ but part of life. The more we engage with stories as a joyful and satisfying aspect of life the more we will resonate authentically with the material we create.

If storymaking and storytelling don’t come easily to you it is probably because no one had shown you the core tools and methods that make it possible and pleasurable. Once you have a clear understanding of storytelling tools and practice you will be well on your way to finding your storytelling creative flow.

 

“There’s a big difference between a performer who tells you what they have learnt, and a teacher who makes a space for you to learn what you are ready to learn, and walks beside you while you do it. Michael is a true teacher.”

— Alys Torrance – professional storyteller

 

Michael Harvey has been a professional storyteller for over twenty-five years. He has worked internationally, teaching and performing on every continent (except Antarctica!).   Michael helps people reconnect with with the depth and creativity of myth and other traditional narratives in order to create new stories and tell them convincingly and authentically. We’ll do this by getting into the specifics of how traditional narrative form and symbols actually work.  He is a top international, award-winning storyteller and facilitator.  He has taught and directed leading and emerging contemporary storytellers and has worked extensively in the education sector facilitating the creativity of both students and staff.  Since lockdown he has spearheaded storytelling coaching and training online with students from Bridgend to Brazil. To his surprise, he has found that the cohort experience online is even stronger than in conventional courses and that the continuation is more sustained once the teaching sessions are over.  He has performed at leading festivals world wide, including Beyond the Border and the National USA Storyelling Festival. He won a Major Creative Wales Award in 2011 that allowed him to deepen his storytelling expertise including the 3rd Labo at La Maison du Conte near Paris over an 18 month period.

As well as performing traditional stories to audiences large, small and online Michael has developed methods to create resonant and meaningful stories with groups in schools, businesses, organisations including the NHS, and members of the general public.

 

“I learned a lot about mastering the flow of story, and about marrying the different worlds to create a colourful tapestry which the story audience can see clearly. I really value Michael’s natural, heartfelt, sensitive and inspiring way of coaching.”

— Nana Tamova – storyteller, pharmacist, photographer and poet

 

Stories created and told together are an escape hatch from a Covid mentality and back to the world we all come from. A shared world of magic, transformation, animism, group creativity and joy.

Cancellations: Any request to change (eg defer to alternative dates) or cancel your place at a workshop, that is made at less than 21 days before the course start date will be charged in full.  Any cancellation / amendments / requests to defer before 21 days, will be subject to a 12.5% handling charge.

For more info or help: email sambaker.pa@gmail.com or call Juliet Grayson on 01291 638805

BOOK HERE: £169 if booked by 4 Sept 2022, £189 if booked by 4 Oct 2022.  Full price thereafter: £205  CLICK HERE TO BOOK  

This course is organised through Sleeping Mountain Ltd