Transforming Tales


Book Description

This book reveals the true impact of stories on our lives and how stories can create feelings of hope, take away psychological distress and even stimulate the immune system. It contains over 90 short stories, and allows readers to understand the patterns storytellers use to captivate attention and how truths are often encapsulated in stories.




Transforming Tales


Book Description

A very interesting and unusual book...The central theme of stories for change is challenging and exciting and it offers a good deal of wisdom about working with stories and insights into the stories themselves' – Mary Medlicott, storyteller, author of Shemi's Tall Tales and Cooking up a Story 'An illuminating account of the stories behind, within, above and below metaphors. The author's style is wonderfully engaging and flows beautifully from start to finish... This book will inspire anyone who works in therapeutic, creative, educational or business settings as well as being a joyful read to those who are fascinated by stories, fables and folklore. - Jaycee la Bouche, hypnotherapist, NLP confidence coach and children's relaxation teacher, Relax Kids ''This is a source of fabulous ideas and insights on the art of storytelling I will dip into again and again. Thought provoking explanations and rich examples are underpinned with biological information all of which flow easily from Rob's huge experience and skill as a storyteller. It seems as if stories really are wound into our DNA.' – Andy Vass, psychotherapist, coach and author of Teaching with Influence and Coaching and Mentoring for Leaders The power of story in our lives is far from adequately understood in contemporary culture. Equally the therapeutic power of storytelling, how it can quite literally entrance and even heal, has been ignored until recently. Transforming Tales reveals the true of impact of stories on our lives and how stories can create feelings of hope, take away psychological distress and even stimulate the immune system. Written by an experienced professional storyteller, this book contains over 90 short stories, from traditional fables to fascinating modern yarns, and allows readers to understand the hidden patterns storytellers use to captivate attention and learn how truths are often encapsulated in myths, jokes and fairy stories.The author focuses on the therapeutic value of stories and how they can instigate real change in people's lives. The book also reveals everything you need to know to create vibrant, memorable, original stories and short metaphors for yourself. This extraordinary journey into imagination and understanding will be an illuminating read for those professionally concerned with psychological and personal change and anyone who wants to learn more about the power and significance of stories.




Transforming Tales


Book Description

Transforming Tales argues that the study of transformation is crucial for understanding a wide range of canonical work in medieval French literature. From the lais and Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, through the Roman de la Rose and its widespread influence, to the fourteenth-century Ovide moralise and the vast prose cycles of the late Middle Ages, metamorphosis is a recurrent theme, resulting in some of the best-known and most powerful literature of the era. Transforming Tales is the first book in English to explore in detail the importance of ideas of metamorphosis in French literature from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. This book's purpose is twofold: it traces a series of figures (the werewolf, the snake-woman, the nymph, the magician, amongst others) as they are transformed within individual texts; and it also examines the way in which the stories of transformation themselves become rewritten during the course of the Middle Ages. Griffin's approach combines close readings and comparisons of literary texts with readings informed by modern critical theories which are grounded in many of the ideas raised by medieval metamorphosis: the body, gender, identity and categories of life. Literary depictions and reworkings of transformation raise questions about medieval understandings of the differences between human and animal, man and woman, God and man, life and death--these are the questions explored in Transforming Tales.




Fairy Tales Transformed?


Book Description

Scholars of fairy-tale studies will enjoy Bacchilega's significant new study of contemporary adaptations.




Strange Happenings


Book Description

Five original stories where strange changes occur, from a boy and a cat changing places and a young man learning the price of selfishness to an invisible princess finding herself.




Pig Tales


Book Description

A young woman who lands a position at a beauty parlor enjoys great success until she slowly metamorphoses into a pig




The Road Within


Book Description

The Road Within is a book of transformation, of lessons learned, maps drawn and burned, and spiritual blessings bestowed by that great and hard teacher -- travel. Learn what mystics and saints have always known -- that wondrous things await people who are in touch with themselves, with the world, and with God. Authors featured in this very different kind of travel book include Annie Dillard, Huston Smith, Natalie Goldberg, Andrew Harvey, Barry Lopez, and Bill Buford.




Using Storytelling to Support Children and Adults with Special Needs


Book Description

This wide-ranging book shows teachers and other educational professionals how to engage in highly creative approaches to the use of story, which can be centred around myths and legends, personal stories, life stories or stories created by children themselves, and highlights how storytelling can open new worlds for children with or without special educational needs.




Tales from the Trails


Book Description

Michael Clinton not only travels the world to take photographs that he records in his books, he travels the world--the 7 continents, in fact--to run, and in Tales from the Trails, he explains why we should all do the sameIncludes contributions from fitness expert Jenny Hadfield and two-time seven continent marathoner Kelly McLay, among othersProvides inspiration and motivation from a community of runners and why they run, covering the gamut of emotional to physical rationalesRunning: it's as simple as striding forward just one foot after another, but as author Michael Clinton has learned over more than 40 years as a runner, it's so much more than just exercise. It's a test of physical and mental endurance and a way to connect with the environment, the global community of runners, and, ultimately, yourself. From the streets of Paris, Buenos Aires, all the way to Sydney, Clinton has gone the distance, never forgetting his running shoes in all of his globetrotting adventures to over 120 countries. In Tales from the Trails, Clinton along with numerous contributors, including George A. Hirsch, chairman of the New York Road Runners and founder of the New York City five-borough marathon, detail inspirational stories of trial, tribulation, and triumph, revealing how running has helped one find love, strengthened a relationship with God, and assisted in overcoming fear and disappointment. Tales from the Trails is a reminder to lace up and hit the trails to run for your life, love, and happiness.




Retelling the Stories of Our Lives: Everyday Narrative Therapy to Draw Inspiration and Transform Experience


Book Description

Powerful ideas from narrative therapy can teach us how to create new life stories and promote change. Our lives and their pathways are not fixed in stone; instead they are shaped by story. The ways in which we understand and share the stories of our lives therefore make all the difference. If we tell stories that emphasize only desolation, then we become weaker. If we tell our stories in ways that make us stronger, we can soothe our losses and ease our sorrows. Learning how to re-envision the stories we tell about ourselves can make an enormous difference in the ways we live our lives. Drawing on wisdoms from the field of narrative therapy, this book is designed to help people rewrite and retell the stories of their lives. The book invites readers to take a new look at their own stories and to find significance in events often neglected, to find sparkling actions that are often discounted, and to find solutions to problems and predicaments in unexpected places. Readers are introduced to key ideas of narrative practice like the externalizing problems - 'the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem' -and the concept of "re-membering" one's life. Easy-to-understand examples and exercises demonstrate how these ideas have helped many people overcome intense hardship and will help readers make these techniques their own. The book also outlines practical strategies for reclaiming and celebrating one's experience in the face of specific challenges such as trauma, abuse, personal failure, grief, and aging. Filled with relatable examples, useful exercises, and informative illustrations, Retelling the Stories of Our Lives leads readers on a path to reclaim their past and re-envision their future.