Carolyn Kurr is an author, piano teacher, storyteller, artist, web designer and an intuitive listener. Here’s what she has to say about storytelling:

How do you use stories in your work?

Stories are the narrative of human existence. When we read a book, watch a movie, attend the theatre, talk to our friends – we are immersing ourselves in a story. Stories are how we share the experience of living.

I use stories to access emotions. When you connect with the emotions of an experience, you open the subconscious. And as soon as you open the subconscious, you can remove emotional blocks, let go of unnecessary baggage, tap into the authentic YOU and effectively use the Inner Wisdom that resides in all of us.

Do you use folk tales, fairy tales, or true stories or any combination and why?

I use all of them and in any combination that works. Our own true stories help us understand our experience. When we can understand the experience with our rational minds, we can then reinforce the positive emotional effect, let go of the negative emotions and then move forward with awareness.

Fairy tales and folk tales contain the wisdom of the ages. The act of listening puts us in a different place. And in this different place, we can more easily identify with the characters’ plight. We can understand the resolution of their conflicts and we can also put ourselves in their shoes. This experience offers insight into our own dilemmas.

What are some of the ways stories can be used to heal?

Stories can show the way to create safety, value your gifts, resolve conflicts, understand hidden agendas, and leave all the baggage that weighs you down by the roadside.

Sometimes what we say we want and what we really want are two different things. Tiger loses the coconut soup he has worked so hard to make in “Anansi & de Coconut Soup” because he lacks this awareness.  Discussing the story and playing with different decisions the characters could have made offers a new perspective, which then brings realization about your own situations.

I use stories to illuminate pathways for my clients to move forward in their lives.

You can see more at Carolyn’s website, www.listenwithcarolyn.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 7:45 am and is filed under Arts. Tags for this post: Carolyn Kurr, intuitive listener, stories, storyteller, storytelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.