Stories

Hear stories submitted by our supporters for #ShareAStory within this section

You can enjoy the stories from our 2023 #ShareAStory Advent Calendar here and 2022 #ShareAStory Advent Calendar here.

About this section

In May 2020 we launched #ShareAStory, our story sharing project, so we could create a bank of stories for our clients, supporters and colleagues to enjoy. We are extremely grateful to all our story tellers and story writers who have donated stories to this project. We hope you enjoy exploring our story pages and listening to the stories.

If you would like to donate a story to Roundabout, the details are at the bottom of this page

Why we use stories in dramatherapy

  • A client hearing a story, may find solutions to his/her issue by identifying with one of the characters or a situation
  • Clients can project their individual predicaments and life experiences on to the story
  • Through stories, our clients can access material not easily spoken about through language
  • Stories provide distance from the challenge, this enables our clients to work with issues that are important, in a
  • non-confrontational manner
  • Stories can help our clients understand the dynamics of common, difficult life events and this helps to normalise their experiences.
  • Stories can build a relationship or a bridge from the teller to the listener
Slide 1

It amazes me that often when I use stories in dramatherapy sessions, we are having fun and laughing together, whilst at the same time exploring difficult feelings in a playful and manageable way.

Xavier Fontenille (Roundabout dramatherapist)

Slide 1

The story itself performs the function of reassuring the recipient that the unknown can become knowable, that the road between the known and the unknown can be travelled both ways.

Alida Gersie

Slide 1

At such stressful times it can be helpful to use the metaphor of a story to help children make some sense of what seems unbearable.

Alison Kelly, Dramatherapist and Roundabout Trustee

Slide 1

Stories are vehicles for understanding, expressing and communicating concepts important to individual and cultural identity.

Gersie and King

Featured Stories

Here are a few of our most popular stories.

References

References and further reading for those wishing to explore the impact of stories in therapy.
The Story So Far Play Therapy Narratives Edited by Ann Cattanach Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Storymaking in education and therapy. London, Gersie, A. and King, N., 1990.: Jessica Kingsley. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Storymaking-Education-Therapy-Alida-Gersie/dp/1853025208
An Investigation of the Therapeutic Potential of Stories in Dramatherapy with Young People with Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Jeannie Lewis, Sube Banerjee https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/02630672.2013.772456