Curriculum Vitae

Janet Dowling - Storyteller

Background

I am a storyteller. Eldest of five children, I told stories to keep my younger brother and sisters occupied and out of trouble. Then I trained as a psychiatric social worker and used the concepts of storytelling and story-making in therapeutic work as a counselor, family therapist and group-worker.

Since 2000 I have been working as a professional storyteller with children and adults in different settings - museums, schools, hospitals, and community projects, and relating the work to the National Curriculum, promoting diversity and emotional literacy and active audience participation and involvement.  

I have a MA in Children's Literature where I focused my work on the impact of traditional folk tales on children's literature. My dissertation was on how mental illness is reflected in children's literature. I have an article on this, titled,  “Into the Snake Pit, and out again,” on the Book Trust Education Website (click here to access article).

I tell stories from different settings and cultures - traditional, personal, and original stories, and plan the programmes to enable the target audience to both enjoy and be challenged by the stories. When I tell stories I aim to promote and develop the emotional literacy of the listener: to enable them to empathise with the characters in the stories and the emotions that they experience, and then relate that experience to their own lives.

I run workshops to enable people to learn how to learn stories, and then how to tell them. I work with both creating stories and retelling personal stories. I work with adults and children from 6 to 106 and aim to work inclusively with people of different abilities and experiences, and have extensive experience working with storytelling with adults and children with profound and multiple learning disabilities.

I lead a special interest group for the Society for Storytelling in “Storytelling in Health and Therapy settings”. I have experience of working with adults and children with multiple and profound physical and learning disabilities.

 I have been CRB checked and have my certificate. I have professional insurance, and I am registered as self employed

 General

January 2000 to Current date:

Working as a Storyteller ad hoc in schools, pupil referral units,  libraries, community projects, hospitals, day centres, museums, arts centres and festivals in Surrey, London and the South East, telling stories and running workshops, for adults and children.

 Current projects include:

December 2008 – March 2009.
Commission from Surrey Hills to research and retell “The Surrey Hills Story Trail” – finding the tales of the landscape and developing them in a family friendly form. Please click here to visit the Surrey Hills web site and read some of the stories.

September 2008 and ongoing.
Developing the “Serendipity Story Project” with Surrey Arts drama development officer - to support and develop storytelling in Surrey in schools and for adults.

March 2008 and ongoing.
Established adult storytelling group in Ewell called “Three Heads in a Well” with the aim to promote local community involvement in sharing local and traditional stories.

August 2005 (and on going ad hoc).
Storyteller at Bourne Hall Museum, Ewell, Surrey – historical period stories for the museum clubs, community festivals and other events. Currently developing local oral history project.

From May 2004. Corporate events- ad hoc.
I am registered with a speakers’ agency and have performed programs of stories at corporate events.

Febuary 2004 (ad hoc as needed and ongoing).
Storyteller at the Guildford House Gallery, Guildford, Surrey .

The Gallery is a 17th century house which has a changing program of exhibits, and is part of the local museum cluster. I have run storytelling workshops for schoolchildren, storytelling sessions for family audiences and lectures for adults relating to traditional stories (eg ”Sister of the More famous Jack.” And “Sex , lies and videotape - the stories of the Brothers Grimm”.)

April 2000
Established “Surrey Storytellers Guild” offering advice and support for storytellers in Surrey, and anyone interested in storytelling. Run adult storytelling circle in Surbiton for 18 months from Sept 2000, and in Ewell for 18 months from Sept 2004.  Click here for further details of the Guild.

October - November 2008.
Joint project with musician Roger Watson - developing intergenerational community  project to collect stories from older people at a day centre, for a junior school to work into stories and songs to retell back to the members of the day centre.

January - March 2008.
Working with Haringey Educational Psychology department and the Haringey City Learning Centre on oral storytelling and use of IT to support literacy for children with dyslexia and those reluctant to read.

July – December 2007.
Working with “BagBooks” – a not for profit organization, promoting multi sensory storytelling for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, and training librarians, teachers and parents the most effective way of telling stories with this group.

June - July 2007.
“Celebrating Diversity”- 6 week  project with “Create” at Stephen Hawking School, to develop a story with children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, working in tandem with an artist.

June 2007 and May 2008.
Working with Early Start in Epsom to run workshops for parents to tell stories to their children.

April 2007 to current.
Run  workshops on storytelling in bereavement for local Cruse groups and at National Cruse conference for 2007 and 2008.

March 2007.
Working with BBCRaW in Epsom.

November 2006.
10 days in Kuwait running storytelling workshops for students , and performances in schools, and to adult audiences at the Kuwait Writers Association.

September – October  2006.
Awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to spend 8 weeks studying storytelling for the dying and bereaved in the US and Canada. Gave performances and run workshops.

May 2006.
Featured in “Making the Leap” by Voluntary Arts England
“Inspirational stories of people who started out as volunteers in the arts and now make their living in the arts.” Click here to view the publication in PDF format.

October 2005 to Jan 2006 (8 days over 8 weeks).
Facilitating bereavement storytelling project in Central London day centre for adults with learning disabilities.

August 2005, & August 2006.
Storyteller at the Roald Dahl Museum – using story plays which supports children participation in the story.

March – June 2005.
Participated in a Group Production of the retelling of the Mahabharata (Hindu Epic Story).

February 2005 – March 2006.
Resident Storyteller at London Transport Museum – 30 days over a year:

• Project 1- Storytelling at the Livesey Museum as part of the “Museum Hub” and outreach with schools in East and South London.
  
  
• Project 2.- Storyteller’s Apprentice workshops at a school in Tower Hamlets.
  
  
• Project 3. – Whilst the LT Museum was closed I went into schools with storytelling workshops on trains and buses.

This work is featured in "Telling Tales – a Guide to developing effective storytelling programmes in Museums."  (click here to view).    

From July 2004. – July 2006.
One day a month as Storyteller at Chase Children’s Hospice, Guildford, Surrey funded by “Kids Out”.

Dec 2003 – Feb 2004 (one day a week for 8 weeks)
Haringey City Learning Centre.  Working with children for whom English is a second language, to develop storytelling skills to tell stories on the radio. From this I developed the "Storyteller’s Apprentice" workshops which continues to be a popular request from schools.

Oct 2003 to May 2007
Storyteller at The Children's Trust; Tadworth Court, Surrey. One day a week, working with children with profound and multiple physical and learning difficulties, and children recovering from brain injury.

April 2003, April 2004, April 2006, April 2008
Workshops, at the Society for Storytelling Annual Gathering, on therapeutic storytelling, including storytelling with children and adults with special needs.

August 2001, August 2003, August 2004 , August 2005, August 2006  and August  2007 at Sidmouth International Folk Festival - a week long festival of folk arts where I run daily story circles for adults, beginners workshops and talks on storytelling ( eg “Sex, Lies and Videotape- the Brothers Grimm Experience,” and “Sister of the more famous Jack”).  

Articles include:

Into the Snake pit and out again (click here).

For my report on “Storytelling in the care of the dying and the bereaved” (click here).

Radio.

Janet has  been featured on Radio Resonance (104.4 FM) (February 2004), a local London based station (available world wide on the internet). In this live broadcast, she told stories and talked about storytelling and the benefits it can bring for both the teller and the listener. She has also made several appearances on Southern Counties Radio.

 References

References can be provided upon application.