The Institute for Story-Guided Therapy & Mentoring is a non-profit organisation, providing:
Courses for Schools, Universities, Business and NGO’s
Training for Teachers, Parents, Health Workers, Wellbeing Officers
Consultancy & Resources
We promote best practice in well-being and talent development – informed by the latest evidence-based research, particularly in the neuroscience of narrative and post-traumatic growth.
Our initiatives grew from the work and talent of the Screen Arts Institute that was set up in 2011 to support diverse voices and expertise in talent development and film-making, working on outreach programmes particularly with the British Film Institute Future Film. Our mentees and colleagues have won several Oscars and broken box office records.
Now, the emphasis of our work is socio-emotional training and talent development for all.
The director, Stephen May, and his core team have worked with educational institutions and business for over thirty years – bringing an evidence-based expertise in the use of narrative and peer-support structures. Clients include: Oxford University, The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, SOAS, Kings College, the London School of Economics and the British Film Institute.
Our programmes build from the knowledge – now accepted by both the scientific and arts communities – that all our attempts at meaning and managing our sense of self are filtered through story structure.
Our You Are Your Story® (YAYS) programmes embed 18 key social skillsets that flow from story-guided mentoring. (Go to Resources & Courses page for more detail on this.)
Our programmes dovetail with existing provision of PSHE resources for schools. They can also be run as stand-alone courses for education and business.
The ability to understand the mechanics of narrative form (what we can call classical story structure), and make these observations available to our conscious, can be the most effective personal tool to:
- Manage emotional challenges
- To sustain self-esteem
- To build and support intimacy and trust in relationships
- To provide the bedrock for a sense of purpose and meaning
- To maximise creative potential in work and life
Story structure synthesises many social disciplines and developmental tools including;
- philosophical and ethical consideration
- the development of empathy and compassion
- the inspiration for dogged allegiance to a personal value system.
Context, & Assessing Needs:
The largest item of cost for the health services in the UK and the USA is provision for mental health issues. This cost dwarfs the spend on heart disease and cancer. Prescribing anti-depressants (which are only “effective” for 50% of recipients) and attempting to provide one-to-one talking therapy for individuals who reach a point of dire need are both strategies to deal with symptoms and not causes.
To date, educational institutions provide very little in the way of preventative support and socio-emotional training for young people. Yet the latest research confirms, once again, that this is the only realistic way to healthily address an endemic need. And we have the tools readily available to begin this process at secondary school level.
As an analogy, educational institutions have tended to wait until students are seen drowning, and then dive in to attempt to life-save them one at a time. Would it not make more sense to teach them all to swim?
This is the goal of our Institute – to enable young, and not so young people, to better manage the emotional challenges of their lives.
Our programmes are as relevant to the CEO’s of multinationals as they are to secondary school students. We run courses direct to schools, universities, for business and for NGO’s. And, most importantly, train teachers, health workers and HR executives to run schemes themselves.
Comments from attendees to our training & workshops:
“I don’t think I’ve learned this much in a long time. That was incredible. Thank you.” – Professor Mark D’Inverno (Goldsmiths College, London, & original Chair of Safe Ground, Mental Health support in prisons.)
“A life-changing experience.” – anonymous student
“If you’re feeling lost, this may be the way to find what you’re looking for.” – Aishwarya (Student)
“So much information, so clearly explained and all relevant.” – Kay (BACP Psychotherapist)
“This workshop was invaluable in communicating tools for taking control of my own mind, relationships and career! I look forward to more of the same. Thank you!” – Calais (student)
“Inspiring, fun. It broadens your mind.” – Wei Jiang (student)
“This has been an incredible journey of insight and realisation. A truly life changing experience. Inspirational. Thanks again! I am feeling very positive today.” – Helen (parent)
“Dedicating time to challenge my own thinking and identifying the benefits of change could turn out to be one of the best things I’ve done. For me, and for the people I love.” – Anonymous (business leader)
Contact us for more information:
