HOLDING STORIES

A gentle and trauma-informed guide designed to help volunteers and staff hold stories with care, safety, and ethical awareness. Holding Stories offers practical frameworks, reflective principles, and compassionate guidance for supporting restorative storytelling spaces without pressure, extraction, or harm.

Modular & Reflective Approach

Explore restorative storytelling through reflective learning, guided exercises, grounding practices, and ethical facilitation frameworks designed to support steady, participant-led engagement.

Trauma-Informed Content

Learn how trauma impacts expression, memory, language, and creativity while developing safe, non-extractive approaches rooted in consent, dignity, safeguarding, and emotional safety.

Practical & Engaging

Build confidence through real facilitation tools, volunteer scripts, symbolic storytelling practices, group exercises, boundary-setting techniques, and interactive reflective activities.

About the Course

Holding Stories is a trauma-informed storytelling course designed for volunteers, facilitators, and staff working in restorative and creative spaces. The course explores how to hold stories ethically through safety, consent, boundaries, and non-extractive practice. Participants will learn trauma-informed facilitation skills, safeguarding principles, reflective storytelling approaches, and practical tools for supporting creative expression with care and dignity. Grounded in restorative practice, this course helps create spaces where stories can be shared - or remain unspoken - without pressure or harm.

Course Curriculum

12 Chapters · 107 Lessons

1
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Downloads
2
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  1. Welcome to Voicing the Void
3. (Included in full purchase)
  2. What We Mean by "Holding Stories"
4. (Included in full purchase)
  3. What This Training Is — and Is Not
5. (Included in full purchase)
  4. Scope and Responsibility
6. (Included in full purchase)
  5. Our Values and Approach
7. (Included in full purchase)
  6. Who This Training Is For
8. (Included in full purchase)
  7. Your Role
9. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
3
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  Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  1. Story = Linear, Verbal, or Factual
3. (Included in full purchase)
  Deirdre’s story
4. (Included in full purchase)
  2. What a Story May Look Like
5. (Included in full purchase)
  3. Silence, Symbol, and Refusal
6. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
4
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  Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  1. Trauma in Human Terms
3. (Included in full purchase)
  2. Why We Don't Ask for Trauma Disclosure
4. (Included in full purchase)
  3. "Pain Is Not Currency"
5. (Included in full purchase)
  4. Trauma-Informed Practice in This Space
6. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
7. (Included in full purchase)
  Quick Test
5
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  Listening Exercise
3. (Included in full purchase)
  As you listen, consider
4. (Included in full purchase)
  1. Restorative Practice in Storytelling Spaces
5. (Included in full purchase)
  2. How Stories Emerge
6. (Included in full purchase)
  3. The Role of Symbol and Indirect Expression
7. (Included in full purchase)
  4. Choice, Pace, and Control
8. (Included in full purchase)
  5. When Stories Do Not Appear
9. (Included in full purchase)
  6. Volunteer Responses That Support the Process
10. (Included in full purchase)
  7. A Restorative Anchor
11. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
12. (Included in full purchase)
  Quick Test
6
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  1. What Holding Space Really Means
3. (Included in full purchase)
  2. Boundaries as Care
4. (Included in full purchase)
  3. Responding to Creative Work
5. (Included in full purchase)
  4. Responding to Emotion
6. (Included in full purchase)
  5. Group Dynamics and Containment
7. (Included in full purchase)
  6. What This Can Look Like in Practice
8. (Included in full purchase)
  7. Holding, Not Controlling
9. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
7
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Purpose of this module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  1. Why language matters
3. (Included in full purchase)
  2. Opening a session
4. (Included in full purchase)
  3. Responding to creative work
5. (Included in full purchase)
  4. Responding to symbolic or fictional work
6. (Included in full purchase)
  5. Responding when someone is emotional
7. (Included in full purchase)
  6. Offering choice without pressure
8. (Included in full purchase)
  7. When someone declines to share
9. (Included in full purchase)
  8. Redirecting unsafe or overwhelming sharing
10. (Included in full purchase)
  9. Boundary phrases to use often
11. (Included in full purchase)
  10. Using silence as a skill
12. (Included in full purchase)
  11. Practicing language as a skill
13. (Included in full purchase)
  12. The ethos behind the words
14. (Included in full purchase)
  13. Purpose of storytelling
15. (Included in full purchase)
  14. What we mean by “story”
16. (Included in full purchase)
  15. Trauma-informed foundations
17. (Included in full purchase)
  16. Choice as ethical practice
18. (Included in full purchase)
  17. Pacing as an ethical issue
19. (Included in full purchase)
  18. Holding space
20. (Included in full purchase)
  19. Boundaries as care
21. (Included in full purchase)
  20. Responding to creative work
22. (Included in full purchase)
  21. Responding to emotion
23. (Included in full purchase)
  22. Group and one-to-one dynamics
24. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
8
1. (Included in full purchase)
  1. Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  2. Safeguarding essentials
3. (Included in full purchase)
  3. Safeguarding is Prevention, Not Reaction
4. (Included in full purchase)
  4. When and How to Escalate
5. (Included in full purchase)
  5. Aftercare for Participants and Volunteers
6. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
9
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  Fateful to Grateful
3. (Included in full purchase)
  1. Ethics as Everyday Practice
4. (Included in full purchase)
  2. Confidentiality: The Foundation of Trust
5. (Included in full purchase)
  3. Limits of Confidentiality
6. (Included in full purchase)
  4. Consent: Ongoing, Informed, and Revocable
7. (Included in full purchase)
  5. Power, Authority, and Responsibility
8. (Included in full purchase)
  6. Non-Extraction and Story Ownership
9. (Included in full purchase)
  7. Representation and Consent Beyond the Room
10. (Included in full purchase)
  8. Cultural, Identity, and Contextual Ethics
11. (Included in full purchase)
  9. Ethical Self-Disclosure
12. (Included in full purchase)
  10. Accountability and Ethical Reflection
13. (Included in full purchase)
  11. Ethical Commitment of Voicing the Void
14. (Included in full purchase)
  12. Quick reference and ethical anchors
15. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
10
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Purpose of This Module
2. (Included in full purchase)
  Sean's story
3. (Included in full purchase)
  1. What Growth Looks Like
4. (Included in full purchase)
  2. Early Signs of Engagement
5. (Included in full purchase)
  3. Ongoing and Later Growth
6. (Included in full purchase)
  4. What Volunteers Do and Do Not Do
7. (Included in full purchase)
  5. Recognising Invisible Impact
8. (Included in full purchase)
  6. Avoiding the Urge to Measure
9. (Included in full purchase)
  7. Trusting the Process
10. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
11
1. (Included in full purchase)
  1. The Questions We Avoid — Expanded
2. (Included in full purchase)
  2. What to Say Instead — Expanded
3. (Included in full purchase)
  3. If You Remember Nothing Else — Expanded
4. (Included in full purchase)
  4. Re-Naming Responsibility Back to the Organisation — Expanded
5. (Included in full purchase)
  Reflection Questions
12
1. (Included in full purchase)
  Closing
2. (Included in full purchase)
  Instructions for Assignment
3. (Included in full purchase)
  Assignment