Stand & Speak Storytelling
Deliberate story crafting is an ancient and deeply reflective process that draws people to make meaning and find resolution in their experiences, and then share their story as a gift for the audience.
When we take the time to reflect and craft, practise and share, we develop:
Trust and Connection: We reveal more of who we are, safely and meaningfully, which enables people to know and trust us.
Creativity and Imagination: Oral stories are told in large part from images, not words, relying on imagination. The act of crafting and shaping a story proper from the raw material of experience is deeply creative.
Confidence: We become confident in our voice, our experiences and our truth.
Emotional Expression: In crafting our stories we process our emotions, so that in the telling we can, with control, feel, express and resolve.
Make Meaning: The shaping of our stories, is also the shaping of our meaning-making. We deepen our understanding of who we are, what has shaped us and how we wish to go forward.
Captivate Attention: There is nothing more powerful at holding human attention than Story, and nothing more persuasive than a Story that holds a universal truth.
Weave Message with story: All stories are embedded in values and share a message about life. When we weave our message with story, we humanise ourselves and our message.
Self Awareness and Insight: Stories have a way of leading us to what we need to explore in our lives, what we need to understand and transform through the storytelling process.
On offer: Workshops, Hosting, Performances
About Kate’s oral storytelling
I spent over 20 years communicating as a lawyer, writing like the Wizard of Oz, as if there was no-one behind the paper screen. It has taken me a long time to deconstruct my communication style, to be able to speak like… me.
I needed to nurture my imagination, become a student of story, get over a tiny, repetitive and powerful voice saying ‘You can’t do that’, let go of the printed page, and really make sense of who I am, what I have experienced and what I believe.
For last ten years I've been studying and practising, telling and teaching stories. I've found, crafted, practiced and shared stories, over and over and over again. I’ve listened, I’ve coached and I’ve taught countless people to love and think and tell story. I’ve created safe space and hosted, I’ve won the Moth story slam twice and given a TEDx talk once. I’ve felt the embodied impact of story as we sit in circle and share or when we listen and feel moved. I’ve listened and recorded, stitched the audio and published. It is my passion and tool of choice to change the world.
Storytelling Musings
Mobs We've Worked With
Praise for Kate Lawrence and
Story Ground
“Kate’s presentation was masterful, intriguing and pitch perfect for our audience. The story that Kate put together was intriguing and showed just how much work and care she put into crafting it. It was a great collaborative process to work with Kate and we’d love to have her again.”
“Kate was a guest story-teller at the launch of the Vocal Ranges Festival 2016. This is a new, annual event in Kyneton, Central Victoria, that celebrates the vocal arts through participation and performance.
Kate’s stories were adventures into funny and poignant experiences, and accessible to all. Kate also spoke about the magic and power of a story experienced as a shared imagination. Above all, Kate’s passion for storytelling and its role in culture was an inspiring addition to the festival launch, and we hope that she can share her skills for our audiences next year!”
“The flowers were just a small gesture to say thank-you for bringing story telling to Woodend.
I really look forward to the first Friday of each month.
The atmosphere in the room is always so welcoming and provides warmth as people share their stories.
It’s wonderful to then go home and reflect on the stories and have a second and subsequent laugh.
Thank you again. Story Wise Woodend has made a lasting impression on me.”
“Thank you for the workshop Kate. It was so special - I was really quite affected by it in a positive way. You share your craft with openness and respect. You have opened up a whole new world for me.””
“Loved the Storytelling workshop and enjoyed listening to the replay of my story. I may even be bold enough to pick a story and perform it later this year. I’m so glad that I attended your workshop last Saturday. The start of something new! Exciting!”
“I enjoyed the workshop, Kate. That was my first experience with storytelling. I knew nothing about it before and the workshop could have gone longer from my standpoint. It was a good balance between theory and practice and small enough to give us all a go. I’ll certainly get more experience when I can. ”
“Story On Purpose offers strategies for finding the nuggets in our lives that can be transformed into stories. the workshop was full of new and exciting ways to think about shaping personal stories.”
It is quite the journey to become a confident, skilled and inspiring storyteller. There are many steps and missteps along the way, and just like any development journey, there is no real 'arrival'.