Methodology
Your Story Matter is an experiential training based on applied theatre, and has the capacity to disrupt the status quo as we hold up a mirror and asking critical questions. The power in this work lies in the fact that we experience and practice the transformation in interpersonal relations by simulating real-life situations (case studies).
The core of Your Story Matters training is based on Forum and Image Theatre, segments of Theatre of the Oppressed, which is a system of theatre strategies designed to illuminate power hierarchies. In Forum/Image Theatre, we embody our stories either in still images (as if looking at a photograph) or scenes (witnessing the situations with dialogues and movement). Then, together we analyze them from varied perspectives as we work toward possible solutions and alternative choices – looking to enact the positive change.
Applied Theatre – Interactive Theatre for Social Change
Applied theatre refers to the use of drama practice in educational and community growing contexts. At the core of this practice is the intention to generate change (of awareness, attitude, behaviour, etc.) by changing audience to participants. Applied theatre has been successfully used in various fields and situations as means of promoting social and political change.
Philosophical Inspiration
My practice is people-centered. And what it means is that you, the participant, are in the centre of the practice. Your stories, your experiences, and your observations – become the content of the training, and it is thus 100% relevant to your needs. I truly believe that you are an expert on your own life, on your learning, and your professional growth. This belief is aligned with what Paulo Freire described as co-intentional or liberatory pedagogy in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and what is being developed as Critical Pedagogy. This pedagogy is rooted in a deep felt compassion for the fellow human being in our collective effort to create more just social order.
Unique Aspects of
Your Story Matters training
Balanced – Holistic
I believe that our world needs a balance of heart and mind, feelings and intellect, masculine and feminine. We are transforming the status quo that has for millennia benefited from distorting balance. I demonstrate my commitment to restoring balance by welcoming different parts of our being to the table:
Emotional intelligence, Body, Breath, Rhythm, Voice, Intuition, Feelings, Senses, Intellect, and Reflective and Meta-cognitive capacities.
Theatre-, story-, and play-based
The paradigm shift I want to see in the world lies in re-applying and re-integrating arts and play to our life. Creative expressions and artistic endeavours used to be accessible to everyone but became a domain of a few. Society constructed artificial divides between work, learning, and pleasure. However, human beings have always explored and learned by using the different modalities of art, such as role-playing, drawing, building and designing, creating music, listening, practicing difficult situations, imagining, storytelling, re-enacting.
No theatre or story-telling experience necessary.
All strategies we use at Your Story Matters, such as role playing or interpreting situations and inter-personal communication are innate skills available to all human beings.
Let’s start walking the talk. It is time for you to experience the methodology in practice and recognise the results.