A bit more background
Hi, I’m Shane.
The oldest of six children, Shane grew up in a family home where there were lots of traditional oral stories told by his father. The family would regularly sit down together and listen to stories, as well as the singing of nursery rhymes.
Shane also heard oral stories and nursery rhymes at infant school.
Shane would tell these stories or sing nursery rhymes to his younger siblings. He continued this oral tradition with his own three children.
A native of Suffolk and East Anglia, Shane grew up steeped in folk & fairy tales, local stories, folklore and the traditions of his native birthplace. Without realising it at the time, Shane was part of an ancient spoken tradition of oral storytelling.
Shane has a great interest and affinity with the landscape and the stories held within a landscape. He also has a keen interest in stories from other cultures and undertakes a lot of deep study, sometimes including field study, to inform the stories that he tells.
Hello from me
Before becoming a professional storyteller Shane spent two decades using ‘applied storytelling’, as a therapeutic tool with children and adults, firstly as a Social Worker and then as a Psychotherapist, using real life story content ‘re-narrated’ in a semi-structured story framing.
Experience
A Cultural Experience
Shane draws on the experience he had in Canada, where he was specially invited to attend a traditional community gathering of the Indigenous Metis people.
Shane was part of a large traditional story sharing circle, as part of a personal, cultural and ancestral healing process.
An honour not many receive.
Today
Nowadays Shane divides his time in three ways, as a professional storyteller, running a small private counselling practice and as a bushcraft teacher. He is also an occasional poet and story writer.
Shane is a Trustee of the ‘Society for Storytelling’ and Chair Committee Member.
