Guided Autobiography
Reflections of a Story Coach
Some of us are later bloomers. Sometimes, you have to live a life to have a story worth sharing.
Some of us are late bloomers.
I knew I wanted to be a writer at the age of 15 but I didn’t publish my first story until I was 65.
I had an idea for a book on storytelling in 2012; I finally published it this month, 12 years later.
Some things take time.
For much of my working life, I’ve been helping the young and old tell their stories before it’s too late. Working as a counsellor in the 70s and early 80s, I aimed to assist young people in understanding their narratives and exploring ways to reframe them, enabling them to live more fulfilling lives.
As a student and teacher of English literature during the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early 2000s, I immersed myself in the stories of the past — from early mythology to postmodern tales — and tried to make sense of my life stories and encourage my students to do the same.
In 2005, I exchanged the classroom for a life on the road as an itinerant storyteller, thus fulfilling a long-held dream to tell stories and help people tell theirs. One of those was an 89-year-old woman I interviewed over a two-hour period. When we finished telling me her life story…
