Aderyn

Thank goodness, the above title did not transform it's self into a foreign, though storytelling looking text!
I went to Aderyn which is a rehabilitation centre for forensic psychiatric patients.
I started with 'The King & The Corps' Which is a long, long, long, long, long, long delightful, enchanting, seductive, dark but light, I-want-to-tell-more-but-can't-in-one-sitting, kind of story.
There was only two patients there but both of them were completely present in the story and talked and discussed the dilemmas at the end of the stories. Passive observers of the stories they were not. When I said the monk came to the King every day for ten years one of the listeners spontaneously told me how many days that would be. Good, I'm glad I was told but I did not retain that information, nor is my arithmetic that good. You do the sums, how many days are there in 10 years? Remember the leap years!!
Anyway. I enjoyed telling and sharing storytelling time.
They asked me back, in fact for next week!
We'll see.

नातिओंल नुर्स्सेस डे

The above title says : 'National Nurses Day' but for some reason the computer changed it into a language I don't recognise. Anyway I will continue and have an argument with the lap-top later.
At the hospital I work in, to celebrate good old Florence Nightingales Birthday on the 12th May, an internal nurses conference was held. I gave a presentation about the storytelling work I have been doing. I ended the presentation by reading something I rather like from the philosopher Henry D. Thoreau (1817 - 1862)
'.....I see this art every time I walk into an environment where a nurse is busy 'creating' the day for an other person. They busy using the light, space, sound words, movement and touch to deliver the message of care. And like true artists they are willing, indeed they see it as essential, to share their performance with others.
It is something to be able to paint a picture, or to carve a statue and so make a few objects beautiful. But it is far more glorious to carve and paint the atmosphere in which we work to affect the quality of the day.....'

I think that storytelling helps me a great deal to create a space for patients where they in turn can be creative and think about things in a different way.

The feed back from the presentation was good. In fact the very next day I had a 'phone call inviting me to go to a rehabilitation unit to start a storytelling club and to do a presentation at a conference for rehabilitation some time later this year.
At the conference the head of nursing from Partnerships in Care gave a talk and shared with us how we face a time of 'slash and burn' as the economic situation continues to be poor. Mental Health is the 'Cinderella' of the health agenda and that is where the first financial cut are made. As nurses we were told to keep our eye on the horizon and spot a band waggon in the distance and get on it. The band wagon I spot is storytelling, and I'm already on it. I think PiC are being wise by joining and supporting me in that. There support does continue as they have just this week agreed to give me finical support to attend the 'Storytelling for Health' symposium in Glasgow next month, which I am looking forward to a great deal.

Horatio in Prague

I have just returned from the 2nd international psychiatric nurses congress which was held in the beautiful city of Prague. Despite the volcano Eyjafjallojokull shrugging her shoulders and causing travel chaos, I did return only 24 hours later that expected, but that is an other story of adventure and a happy ending!

Horatio is an association which started as a network for psychiatric/mental health nurses in 2005. It was officially established as an association in April 2006. It has two aims:

• To advocate for the interest of the members by providing in-put into the decision making process on issues relevant to psychiatric/mental health nursing in Europe
• Aims to promote the development of psychiatric/mental health nursing practice, education, management and research.

I presented a workshop there on storytelling and the possible applications it can have in a mental health setting. 22 people attended the workshop. I explained a bit about who I am. I explained what I mean by storytelling, the work I have done at Llanarth Court Hospital in the past two years and what results I have experienced on the wards and patient feed back. I also had a bit of time to tell a short story. The hour I had seemed very short. There were lots of relevant questions from the participants. The immediate feed back was positive. I would have liked to have done more activities with the group and enabled them to experience more of the fun of a storytelling club, but there just was not enough time.

I hope I have planted a seed for some of my nursing colleagues. If you are one of the people that took part in the workshop and you liked what you heard, tell others. If you liked the story I told, its not mine to keep so tell it to your patients and pass it on. That is what storytelling is about. Please leave feed back too if you attended the workshop. Thank you.

It been a while

I've missed filling in the blog the last while just because I have been busy doing other things, all to do with storytelling of course!
I've just got back from the hospital and thought I'd sit down and catch up strait away. Since the last time I blogged I've done four clubs on the wards, and impromptu storytelling on the ward I work on day to day. I have started taking objects into the wards, such as a fan, some silk roses one red one white, some un-carded wool, a rough old root from a tree that looks like a lot of different creatures, depending on how you look at it. A Russian doll, a piece of colourful fabric. The idea is to create a story or just explore where the objects came from? Who's where they? Are they magical? are they quite ordinary? The seem to spice up the imagination and create a sense of fun.
I've also been working on a hand-out for the workshop I'll be doing next Saturday at the International Psychiatric nurses Congress in Prague. Needless to say I have also been quite preoccupied with preparing the actual workshop too. I am looking forward to it with mixed feelings of worry and exhilaration. In the next week or two the article I wrote will be published in the 'Quality Network In Forensic Mental Health Newsletter'. Watch this blog to get the link.
Sadly I could not make the Newent Storytelling club due to work commitments but did go to the Wolverhampton club run by Peter Chand. It was very vibrant and good to be able to tell a story to so many listeners, and listen to so many stories. If anybody is wondering whether its worth going to Wolverhampton for the storytelling club, I'd say its well worth it.

Art Therapist

I spent the afternoon today telling stories and having some story telling fun with the Welsh Art Therapist. They had had a business meeting in the morning, and seemed to have worked hard, ready to sit back and listen to stories. At first I thought I would not have enough to tell and that it would all get a bit tedious, but on the contrary, they were all good listeners and asked questions and we had some good conversations about the stories. The stories they told about the object that they took out of the basket were very good. If you are a storyteller and Art Therapists ask you to tell them some stories, just say yes. I had a lovely time.

Working towards Prague

Last night a group of people gathered together to do me a great favor. They let me run through what I might do at the workshop I'll be running at the International Psychiatric Nurses Conference in Prague, this April. I'm so pleased I had that opportunity because basically it was rubbish and it showed me clearly what I need to do to get the workshop together. The feed back was brilliant and has helped me see clearly what I need to work on. Lots of work to do but I'm looking forward to it. A big thank you to those 7 of you who gave you time so generously.

A third ward

I was asked to go and run a storytelling group on a third ward in the hospital. It was during what is called 'Patient protected time'. It is a male ward. I felt it would be a challenge to engage them so went in with my 'rain stick' which attracted some attention. The timing was bad because as I arrive a patient was behaving particularly badly and needed to be escorted to the intensive care suite. The group that gathered in the side room to listen to a story was a group of four. Not bad at all. One asked if he could draw whilst listening. Great idea! He just happened to be drawing a unicorn, how fitting. I felt I needed to engage them quickly with something that was definitely NOT for children, so I started with 'The King and The Corpse' These stories are being used by clinical psychologist Steve Killick in Cardiff NHS adolescents units. They are very powerful stories and have riddles at the end, with no right or wrong answer. There was a very lively and interesting discussion afterwards. The patients asked if I would come back again next week. I left it with them to discuss the options with there ward manager.

After the group, I offered to go and tell a story to the patient that had been taken to the intensive care suite. This was generally seen as a good idea by the ward staff. I suddenly went blank and was really struggling to think of a story to tell. (Just trust the Story I said to my self) The one that came to mind was a Mexican story about La Bruha, who out smarted a judge and escaped from her prison cell with the use of magic. It is a short story which I think was all that was needed. The patient listened and seemed to relax a bit.
I returned to the nurses office and the Consultant happened to be there. Conversationally he asked me what story I told. He looked a little worried when I told him and asked if nobody had told me that that particular patient had absconded only a few weeks before? Oh heck I thought, out of all the stories I had to tell, one of escaping a prison cell! I worried about it on the way home, but then came to the conclusion that telling a story about La Bruha escaping with the use of magic, was unlikely to encourage a second abscondtion. For me the story is more about the kindness of La Bruha and Judges fear of something he did not understand so there for he wanted to get rid of La Bruha. It seems to be more about discrimination that abscondtion. At the end of the day it's just a story!

Hospital Clubs

There was a good attendance on Awen Ward storytelling club. We continue to tell the Norse Mythology. We covered one of my favorite stories, how the Gods got there gifts, Loci up to no good again. We did a new exercises, with a ball of variegated wool we built rainbow bridges to reflect Bi frost and made a web by throwing the ball between us in a circle. I was given the idea by Dr. Sue Jennings with whom I have started having supervision/mentoring sessions with on a monthly basis, looking specifically at my work with storytelling in a forensic mental health setting. It worked well and seemed to be enjoyed by the rest of the group.

On the next ward there were three participants. All of them engaged really well with the 'King of Ireland's Son'. The main stumbling block was imagining what an Enchanter is and what he might look like. This provided quite an interlude in the flow of the story but it was all very relevant and thought provoking for me. Due to that conversation and discussion I have gained a better image of what the Enchanter of the Black Back Lands might look like. Thanks to the patients for the questions and discussion.
One of the patients at the end asked if he could tell me a story, which I encouraged. What he told me was not a story as such but more what his psychotic experiences were. No harm done by listening. He told me he had never told anybody about it before, but I wounder if that was the 'story' part. I know he is surrounded by people who are good listeners.

Anecdote

A patient had been in the Intensive ward for some time. When her mother came to visit she was delighted to be entertained by her daughter telling her stories of Jack and how despite him not being very clever ended up marrying the princess. It pleased me no end to hear that when I'm not around stories are being used by patients.

News

I put a paper forward to deliver a work shop at the 'International Congress for Mental Health Nursing' in Prague. It has been accepted and I am really pleased. Thanks to all those who have offered help and support in preparing the workshop.

Hospital Storytelling Clubs

I'm late writing this up. The reason I think is because I had to spend some time thinking about the two very different experiences I had last Thursday at the two different clubs. I was poorly prepared for the Women's ward. That didn't feel too good. Never-the less I moved the Norse Mythology forward, covering 'The Song of Rig' and 'The Mead of Poetry' which was quite a lot for one session. I am constantly surprise how much the patients engage with the stories and seem to enjoy the more gritty, bawdy parts of the Norse Myths. It was evident that the three patients that attended were actively listening. They all agreed that it would be an idea to find a way of inviting Kvasir on to the ward, they believed he would be a good nurse! We played a game at the end with rhythm, stamping feet and passing a ball around the circle without breaking the rhythm. It didn't quite work but it provided a lot of hilarity and laughter. We talked a bit about what rhythm has to do with stories.

I then went to the Male ward, for which I felt well prepared. I have decided to embark on the Epic 'The King of Ireland Son' by Padraic Colum. I love that story and know it well. I have told parts of it quite a few times and do not believe I will ever tire of it.
But the mood on the ward was very lack luster. The police had been on the ward that day to interview patients about an assault and most of the patients decided not to attend. There were only two. The two that attended were keen, but I could not help feel a little disappointed that more did not attend, even though I say I only need one person to listen. A big difficulty in that session was that a support worker came into the session, which in principle is good, but not if they constantly look at their watch and huff and puff.....very distracting. The patients seemed to listen well, but the support worker was NOT going to get into it. Never mind.

In my roll as a nurse in the hospital I have moved wards. the new ward has only got four patients at the moment. I have told them two stories, in the evenings. Just a couple of simple stories for the un-initiated story listener. But quite a reaction from two of them to the first story I told ('When the Fox and the Squirrel where Friend' Form Daniel Mordens 'Dark Tails from the Woods'). Both of them said they were 'freaked out' they said this in a jokey sort of a way, but talked about the stories quite often after that. Asking questions. Both patients have a history of taking drugs, especially psychedelic drugs. Just wondering if storytelling might tap into some memory of hallucinations from a drug trip? Both patient did listen to the second story I told and listened in an uninterested, macho way!

Talk at the Wales Millenium Centre

What is the background to traditional storytelling? How do you adapt to different audiences? How do you interpret a story? How do you capture an audience? What are the challenges to bilingual storytelling?
These were the questions put to storytellers Michael Harvey and Guto Dafis at a talk in the Wales Millennium Centre on Monday, which I attended.
The room was set up in a typical lecture style but that was soon changed by the storytelling folk to a semi-circle. The way the listeners and storytellers arrange themselves for a story was discussed and alternatives to the usual cinema style seating arrangements where explored. I had a picture of a pub in Edinburgh called 'The Brass Monkey' that had a room decked with big, sumptuous cushions, you had to scramble in but once you were in and found a place it was comfy. I could imaging it would have been an ideal place for storytelling.
Guto and Michael gave some background information about they came to be storytellers. Always interesting to hear I find.
Guto being a musician talked about setting the atmosphere with music was something he found useful to capture the audience. The eye contact and the connection with the audence/listeners was highlighted by Michael as being an important aspect of storytelling, in contrast to theatre where the audience is usually not seen by the actors.
The challenges of bilingual storytelling is something Michael and Guto have worked with for a long time, the two languages being Welsh and English. It seems to be a process that is difficult to explain to non bilingual people. Quite a creative process, working with the listeners and there responses to the two languages. The talk was scheduled for only an hour, which is not very long. No time to discuss story interpretation.
It was useful for me to go and it gave me plenty of food for thought as I sat on the train back home.
A big thank you to David Ambrose for chairing the talk and also to Michael Harvey and Guto Dafis.

Halloween

The weather was warm for October, and wind still. That meant that I could tell the story at the Dean Heritage Museum out side and take the listeners for a little promenade too. A big bonus was that two of my spinning friend turned up, so all three of us sat there spinning for a while before the story started. (Look further down the blog for photos)
I still find it a difficult jump to go from spinning to telling, and to continue spinning whilst telling. I wonder if I gesticulate more than necessary? Maybe practicing spinning whilst telling will help me rely less on gesticulation and focus more on the words I choose. That's just a wandering thought.
I enjoyed the setting. Starting the story in one place, then going for a little walk, past the mill, the cider press, the cottage garden and the Foresters cottage, and bringing the story to its conclusion in a different place worked well.

Hospital Storytelling Clubs

The last Thursday of the month, means that I do the hospital storytelling clubs. As usual I started on the Women's ward. Due to several patients being ill in bed with possible 'swine flu' there was only two patient attended the group. I continued to tell the Norse Mythology. The Golden Apples of Iduna. Also Odins Sacrifice for Wisdom. Because of the small group it was difficult to do group exercises, it seemed like the critical mass was missing. I was a lot more informal than usual but the two that were there were very good listeners.
After the group I was able to tell a story to two patients on an individual basis in the bedrooms where they were being nursed, these were more of a light heated 'Halloween' type stories.
Then it was over to the male ward. There the biggest group yet attended. Seven in total. I told 'The Boy Who Went to Discover What Fear Was' Quite a lot of spontaneous feed back from the group. Finishing off the group with light hearted Halloween nonsense

More Wheels

The Water Wheel is changing, turning, slowly into my story. I told it again last night to a small group of fellow storytellers. During the day I had been to the Dean Heritage Centre and walked and talked it through again. Thinking about the bits that don't work so well for me and trying different ways of telling it, changing bits to make it more clear to me.
Today, I have just returned home from the Dean Heritage Centre after spending a couple of hours there spinning with my wheel, and visualizing the story in my minds eye. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Foresters Cottage. I felt a little out of place sitting there spinning, dressed in my jeans and jumper, as the public drifted by, through the cottage so carefully arranged in an historical fashion.
Next stage, picking out the contrasting moods of the story and clarifying the polarities for myself.
Large piece of paper here I come.
But I must not forget that I have the Hospital Storytelling clubs to prepare for too this week. I think I will be able to use the Water Wheel for one of the wards, but need to focus on the Norse mythology too for the women.
So long till next time.

Water Wheel

I met Fi at the Dean Heritage Museum today. Before Fi arrived I stood and listened to the rhythm of the water wheel turning, splashing, turning , splashing, splash, splash, turning, splash, splash, splashing.
I began to visualise the characters and their sad and ghostly plight. I walked through the foresters cottage, past the cider press and the water wheel again. Through the small vegetable garden, past the chicken coop. Placing the characters there in their earthly and ghostly state walking the story, so to speak. It felt a bit creepy after a while, which was good I thought.
I was able to talk to Fi about the story and clarify a few things that I was struggling to visualise. It was quite interesting because Fi paraphrased a lot of the story she had written which helps me a lot to free myself from the written text.
I think I now have a fair idea where I will stand to start the story and where I will lead the listeners to finish the story.
I now have two days to work on the story before telling it at the Stroud Storytelling Club.
For now until next time.

Colford Festival of Words

On Tuesday night the so called Newent Storytellers arrived as a coven and told stories at the Garden Cafe. This was part of a regular event that takes place every second Tuesday of the month to raise funds, awareness and find talent for the Festival of Words that will take place in Colford in August 2010. Local poets, authors, song writers, musicians and storytellers all have there time to perform. Last Tuesday was the night for storytellers.
I told a story written by Fi Benson, local scribe, called the 'Water Wheel'. Its a collaborative work Fi and I are doing for our local museum for Halloween.
It's a different process turning a freshly written story, (so fresh that the ink still seems to be wet) into an oral piece. Tuesday was the first time I told it and I have not managed to make it my own yet. Fi understands the storytelling process and how it is different to reading out load. She has given me the story as a gift to make it my own, which is a great present to have. I still have a lot of working and walking to do with this story and I'm looking forward to the process: Stripping down and building up and stripping down and building up. I know if I stray too far from the original story Fi's lilting North East England accent will keep me from straying too far.
If any one would like to share any thought on turning a newly written story into an oral work I would be glad to hear from you
I'll keep you posted on the process. Next performance at Dean Heritage Museum on Halloween 4.30 pm

spinning.........

It's been a while since I wrote on my blog, I know, but I'd prefer to write once I've done something rather than write about things I am planning. So, I would like to tell you a little about my spinning.......that is with wool and a wheel.
It's a well trodden path I think between storytelling and spinning. There are several stories to do with spinning and weaving. Spinning and storytelling was something I had thought about combining for a while, but not knowing much about spinning didn't know where to start.
When I was at 'Festival At The Edge' in Shropshire this year, I wondered into the Craft Tent and, low and behold, there was a group of spinners. I hovered and looked and asked the spinners questions and was invited to have a go. I sat down and started to spin. I had just been wanting to kill a little time before joining Dominic Kelly on his story walk, and thought that a taste of spinning might be good to see if I liked it or not.... It was love at first spin. Sorry to Dominic, I lost track of time and never went on your story walk. Before I knew it and hour and a half had vanished and I'd missed the walk and was making arrangements to part with money to buy a spinning wheel that I felt I could no longer live with out!
That was in July. Since then I have been practicing spinning.
Like storytelling, spinning needs practice, and those who have done it for years make it look so easy and graceful, spinning the yarn to look exactly how they want it to look, smooth and even or lumpy and uneven, chunky or fine.
This morning I told 'Tom Tit Tot' and spun with my wheel to a paying audience. My first experience of spinning and telling.....I need practice, but the children were certainly interested in the spinning wheel, the wool as well as the story. It was such good fun and I intend to carry on spinning yarns of tales and wool. At some point I will venture into spinning other fabrics such as flax and cotton. Who knows, maybe even straw into gold!

I have storytelling and spinning tasks I am working on but will let you know about them soon as they are spun into useful yarns.
Till then.........Jess

Clinical Governance

I presented Storytelling and what I have been doing in the Hospital to the Clinical Governance group today. I told Arthur Ransom's story Baba Yaga from Old Peters Russian Tails. It was quite a relaxed hour with other professionals discussing the effect of Storytelling on patients with complex emotional needs.
We discussed what storytelling is: A beginning, a middle an end. A sequence of events. They are about characters. They organise chaos, but they are more than that, they are a way of conveying emotions. This was discussed and it was thought that being able to talk about emotions in a safe and impersonal way is of value in a forensic mental health hospital.
In applied storytelling in contrast to performance storytelling it is not about the teller or a competent performance so much. It is the story and the emotional content that is the most important.
When asked if I would be interested in telling stories on various other wards my response was positive.
It would be an exiting and interesting challenge to tell stories to patient who may be experiencing quite a different set of difficulties to those I am telling stories to at the moment.
I hope those who listened this afternoon enjoyed the hour and hope too that they will leave some feed back.
My next task is to write an article for 'Quality Network For Forensic Mental Health Services'
Not to mention the performance storytelling I will be doing in October for Halloween.

Hospital Storytelling Clubs

I've just got back from the hospital where I facilitated two storytelling Clubs. The first one was just after the patients had had there evening meal. Five of the women took part. We started with a few riddles to warm up the brain and then did some physical warm up. We then imagined a light ball, about as big as a foot ball and gently threw it around the circle to each other. The patients in this group have been taking part in the storytelling club for about 18 months so feel quite comfortable with the concept of storytelling. In last months club we decided to start the 'Norse Mythology'.
Since February this year I have been reading the Norse Mythology and getting to know the Gods and Goddesses. In the past week I have concentrated on the creation part only. Because the creation is a lot of description I decided to use the percussion instruments and the thunder maker so as the patients could use them to add atmosphere to the burning ice and biting flame at the beginning of life. Some of the gods and goddesses have been introduced to the club. Norse Mythology will continue till Christmas when we will review what we want to do. i.e. more mythology or wonder tails, legends, folk tales. The verbal feed back from the patients was positive and everyone in the group took and active part.
After the Female ward I went to the Male ward. There were also five patients that took part. This was only the third time storytelling had taken place on this ward, so it is still quite new to them. We did the physical warm ups and checked to see if we were all feeling OK. Then I told two stories. The first was Bear Skin. A German wonder tail. The second was a request of a story I told the first time: 'When The Squirrel and the Fox Where Friends'. A story from Daniel Mordens 'Dark Tales From the Woods' Following the stories there followed a bit of a chat about the stories and one person was telling a new person to the group about other stories that had been told so far. Then it was 'fag time' and the patients went to the smoke room. I enjoyed telling, and they seemed to enjoy listening.
Good night for now.