“If you are a dreamer, come in
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar
If you are a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have flax-golden tales to spin
Come in come in”
~ Shel Silverstein
As well as an author, oral storyteller, wife, mother, and grandmother, my career includes counselling, therapy, University and Polytech teaching. I must have listened and worked with hundreds, if not thousands of human stories and their heroes, at the same time doing many storytelling performances in Storytelling and Fringe Festivals in New Zealand and internationally.
Nowadays I am also calling myself a Story Practitioner; I am devoted to story in all its forms: performance, its healing power,(the stories we are living have teachings for us and I love to help people to find new meanings in their life stories. I like to work from the strengths of the people who come to see me. I live with my husband Michael Woodcock, on a small farm in the Wairarapa , where I am currently writing a book called ‘Changing The World One story At A Time.’ i am hoping this will be a fictional account of the way stories have enabled and healed some of the people who have come to see me over the years.
After training in a variety of psychotherapies— Gestalt, Psychodrama, Group therapy, Narrative Therapy, Marriage and Family Counselling, I attended Victoria University and completed a Masters in Social Work (How Does Telling A Story Of Oppression Become An Act Of Liberation~ I.G. Sutton. Victoria University Thesis) which gave me a psycho-social context for my work and helped me to understand opinions of their therapists and social workers. held by women who had escaped from violent relationships, I am an advocate for social justice e and the future of our planet. Come and see me in my small studio nestled beside the olive grove at Te Ao O Nga Pukeko, Walk and talk with me through the peaceful landscape. Find new meanings in your story and come to regard yourself differently. . 
Or, if you’re a writer, maybe you’d like to take time out for your own writing by making a writing retreat of some days or weeks. Perhaps you’d like to write your stories in a Word Explorers group. Get in touch to make a plan.