testimonials
Discovering the Biology of Story will change your life and work.
But don't just take our word for it...
Giavanni Washington
MPH, PhD. Principal Facilitator
RhythmQuest
" Working with clients as a healer and coach, I sometimes feel the absence of the kind of defined canon I experienced in the academic world. The Biology of Story Course provides a conceptual scaffolding that was immediately applicable and has already upleveled my work. It gave me a language to talk about stories: how we tell them, work with them; how they work with us; how we can learn to hear them better. It shows how to become a different kind of cultural actor, providing juicy inspiration and the keys to unlock personal agency. Unpacking the dense material with other participants in the Conference led to a rich space of community and was a balm to the soul. "
Harriet Friedmann
Professor Emeritus
Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
" I found The Biology of Story Course to be an ongoing revelation. Every theme provides illumination to guide my own attempts to explore human and earthly history,
showing me how to let the story emerge."
Katherine Knight
Visual Artist and Full Professor
York University, Toronto
" The Biology of Story Course models creative thinking methods. It gave me a new lexicon, showing me a way to pick up floating threads in my own practice and look for a pattern. It was a ladder offering rungs I could grab onto and climb through layers of awareness. Like an ever broadening road trip, the sequenced lectures come alive in a landscape of detailed, direct stories about story-making by respected practitioners. The Biology of Story Course is a beacon of hope revealing an alternate path through the barrage of news feeds. "
Suetta Tenney
MD; General Internist
Massachussetts, USA
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" The principle of stories as alive is profoundly useful in the field of health. The incisiveness with which the Biology of Story Course explores this principle makes explicit much that is merely implicit in most studies of narrative. It opens the door to a new language to explore with patients, while allowing for a conversation across disciplines of unusual clarity and rigour. Weeks after the course I am still unpacking its rich insights."
Denni Liebowitz
Psychoanalyst in Private Practice
Berkeley, USA
" The Biology of Story Course reminds us that “the universe is made of stories;” it helps us not only to think about that as a truth but to feel it, learn with it, imagine it, work with it, and play with it, as we discover our stories (personal and collective) and find the possibility of transforming them. This course is timely and deeply connected with the challenging places we, and the world, find ourselves today. But here the space never collapses; there is no polarization! Instead, art meets science, history meets cosmology, biology meets psyche, magic meets political reality which meets the magnificent earth that sustains us. I felt excited and challenged, nourished and inspired, both professionally and personally. A month later, I still feel the impact unfolding and know intuitively that this will continue."
M. A
Business Consultant
UK
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" Like a great story, The Biology of Story Course rewired and deepened understandings, allowing me to connect the dots in a new way, the course’s wisdom constantly inviting me to see beyond my own filters. Then, because each participant wove the course’s threads in a somewhat different way, the content was reborn through our conversation, like a quilt we were co-creating. We were each seriously challenged to expand our own neural patterns, but the course materials were intriguing enough to make us want to dive deep. For me, new knowledge emerged; the best kind of education"
Mostafa Youssef
Film Director and Instructor
Cairo, Egypt
" The course helped me see through the mind-jam that I suffer from while attempting to work on a project. It showed me how to have faith in the creative process and to identify what wants to emerge. I also gained insight that is helping me analyze and understand the
workings of the various narratives around us. "
Alison Humphrey
Theatre/Media Artist & Scholar
Toronto
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" By clarifying what makes a story "Story" – what makes it life-participating and life-sustaining – the course’s conceptual framework has proven enormously useful to my work as a writer and supporter of other writers. I feel it has also helped me take another small step toward understanding how indigenous values are shared through storytelling. "
Lisa Taylor
Full Professor, Faculty of Education
Bishop’s University, Quebec
" The Biology of Story Course has clarified my understanding of the elements and dynamics of Story: it is transforming not simply the university literature courses I teach, but more profoundly my pedagogy. It opened for me the nuances and potentials of using Story with communities of young learners in ways that tap into wonder. Against the onslaught of skill-based test-driven measurement, BioS grounds education in the rigorous work of interdependent transformation, guided by some of the most respected and visionary voices across the sciences and humanities. Story is a verb!"
" The Biology of Story Course created a psychological space I continue to visit, listen and pay attention to for deep inspiration. This unique course, with its excellent interviews, can enhance your sensibility. "
Michael Longford
Associate Professor, Computational Arts
York University, Toronto
" The course spoke to a way of seeing and being in and of the world: maintaining a state of open dialogue with the environment, events and interpersonal relationships that shape our lives. It showed how story can be used to frame and reflect on the challenges we all encounter in life, but also those moments we need to celebrate."
Andrew Barker
Filmmaker
Toronto
" The course was a baptism. I now feel more confident, because the course convinced me that the world is made of Story, and even though there is a lot wrong with the world,
we can make it better, through Story. "