Story Circle Expectations, Guidelines, & Tips
Building community one story at a time
What are Story Circles?
Story Circles include 6-8 people who gather and share stories on a common theme from their own lives. Collectively, the group explores what can be learned from the stories together that would be harder to understand from any particular story alone. Everyone has an important story to tell, our experiences are interconnected, and we can make new connections between experiences, ideas, people, and actions as we consider multiple perspectives. Listening to others’ stories and telling our own is deeply nourishing.
What you can expect
There are no spectators in Story Circles: Everyone participates as a teller, listener, and relater. As a result, groups are capped at 8 people.
Cancelation Policy: When you sign up, I ask that you commit to attending. As a small group, we feel people’s absences. I do offer refunds if you contact me at least 48 hours in advance. With this said, if you are sick you should take care of yourself and the group by staying home to recover. If you become sick less than 48 hours before the Story Circle, I will happily hold a spot for you in an upcoming Story Circle.
Confidentiality: People may share stories that they don’t want out in the world broadly. In order to ensure that people feel comfortable sharing whatever story they would like, please don’t share specifics about people’s stories with those who were not in our Circle unless you have explicit permission. With that said we will learn from each other during our Story Circle and we should take our learning, rather than people’s specific stories, out into the world and share it!
Story Circles are NOT therapy: We aren’t coming together to address mental health concerns, but we ARE coming together to improve our social health. In our gatherings, you probably won’t get answers, but you will connect with others, hear stories, and have interesting conversations.
General Story Circle Outline:
Welcome and grounding meditation
Storytelling and Storylistening (sharing our stories around the circle)
Break and personal reflection time
Storyrelating (group meaning making, exploring the interconnectedness of our stories)
Closing
Storytelling Guidelines and Tips
As a storyteller, share a story that is,
related to the theme. (You can interpret the theme however you like. The description of the theme is meant to get you thinking, not to limit you.)
a true story from your life.
a story that is meaningful to you. Try to convey that meaning.
approximately 5 minutes long.
Storytelling Tips
Telling your story in a Story Circle is not about being a good performer. It is about sharing your story and connecting with others' stories.
You can share your story however you are most comfortable.
Maybe writing your story in advance and reading it to the group feels easier.
Perhaps telling your story from your heart in the moment feels best.
There is no right way to share your story. We want to know your story however that comes out.
Having said this, some forethought about your story, and what you want us to understand about your story, will probably help you better communicate your story.
Storylistening Guidelines and Tips
In Story Circles, listening is just as important as telling. As listeners let's imagine that our purpose is to help the teller be their best. As the teller shares their story as a gift with us, we are there to symbolically "hold" them and their story. Here are some ideas for how we might do this
Offer the teller the gift of our undivided presence.
Listen with curiosity and compassion.
Listen, not only to the tellers' words, but to the meaning and emotion behind their words. What are they telling us nonverbally in addition to verbally?
Listen for the teller's intent and purpose.
Be encouraging and communicate that encouragement without interrupting their story or flow (e.g. nodding, smiling, offering minimal utterances mmhhmm).
It is perfectly okay if someone has strong feelings during the telling of their story. Our job as listeners isn’t to rescue them from those feelings, but to be present with them in those feelings.
Tellers will feed off of the energy of our group. Let's give everyone our best.
Storyrelating Guidelines and Tips
After we have had the opportunity to hear everyone's stories, we will take a short break. During this break time, we will:
take care of our bodies, things like taking a bathroom break, getting a drink, getting your circulation going by moving a bit.
take at least 10 minutes for quiet reflection. I will have writing utensils, paper, and reflection question available. During this time you will reflect on the stories, what you felt, learned, are still curious about, etc.
Next, we will come back together to do some communal meaning making. In other words, we will begin to connect the dots between the stories and explore how they relate to each other. Some questions we might explore are:
What meaning can we make of the stories in conversation with each other that would be hard to decipher from a single story?
What were some themes we saw across our stories?
Where did our stories diverge, what does that mean?
What feelings and thoughts do you have about sharing this experience together?
Thank you in advance for your vulnerability, bravery, and wisdom. I am very excited to hear, learn from, and connect with your story!