What do I do?

Awareness

Connection

Change

I work with people and organisations to understand the changes they want to create, explore what may be getting in the way, and develop and deliver narrative-led responses designed to help make that change possible.

That might mean raising awareness, helping people see an issue differently, building connection within a team, exploring values and culture, challenging assumptions, opening up difficult conversations, or turning greater understanding into action.

My work can take many forms, from theatre or film project development and delivery to workshops, facilitation, training, speaking, organisational development and creative interventions.

I don't start with a particular product or solution. I start with the change you're trying to create, and then explore how narrative might help you get there.

Project development & Delivery

Sometimes you know what you're trying to change, but not what the intervention should look like. That is often where I come in.

I can work with you to understand the issue, identify what you want people to think, feel, know or do differently, explore what may be getting in the way, and develop a response around what we discover.

That might involve developing something entirely new, reshaping an existing project, or bringing together different approaches. Depending on what is needed, I can then deliver the work myself or bring together the people and partners needed to make it happen.

The response might be a film, a workshop, a piece of theatre, training, a facilitated experience, a resource, a longer programme of work, or a combination of different approaches.

The form follows the change we're trying to create.

Applied Theatre Productions

I write, develop and direct applied theatre projects that create change by bringing complex social issues to life. Alongside work created for specific commissions, we have a repertoire of projects available for coordinated tours across groups of schools.

These tours are commissioned by local authorities, safeguarding partnerships, multi-academy trusts and other organisations working across an area.

Explore productions available for commissioned tours

Sadly, I am no longer taking bookings for standalone performances at individual schools. If you would like one of the productions to visit your school, please consider contacting your MAT, local authority or safeguarding partnership to ask whether they would be interested in commissioning a wider tour across your area.

Alternatively, schools can access a growing range of film-based safeguarding and PSHE resources online through 2 Pears Films.

Facilitation & Workshops

I design and deliver workshops and facilitated experiences for organisations, teams and communities.

These can use narrative to explore complex issues, values, assumptions, behaviours and different perspectives; to help people understand their own responses and those of others; and to create conversations that might otherwise be difficult to have.

Some sessions are designed around a particular challenge or outcome. Others introduce and apply ideas from Narrative Lens Theory to help people explore how the narratives we hold influence what we notice, what matters to us, how we interpret what is happening and how we respond.

The work is participatory rather than instructional. Depending on the aims, it might involve storytelling, discussion, practical exercises, Narrative Encounters, creative work, or the exploration of real situations and challenges.

Training

I design and deliver training for professionals and organisations working with complex human issues.

The aim isn't simply to give people more information. It is to help them understand what that information might mean in practice, recognise what may be happening in the situations they encounter, and feel better equipped to respond.

Depending on the subject, training might combine research and evidence with narrative, film, lived experience, discussion and practical exploration. I am particularly interested in how we can engage both reflective, conscious thinking and the faster, more intuitive ways in which people make sense of situations and respond in the moment.

Training can be developed around a specfic issue or need, or form part of a wider project or programme of work.

speaking & keynotes

I speak at conferences, events and professional gatherings about narrative, behaviour and change.

My talks explore how the stories we hold shape the way we make sense of ourselves, other people and the world around us, and what that means for anyone trying to create change.

Depending on the context, I draw on Narrative Lens Theory, Narrative Theory, psychology and more than twenty years practical experience creating and delivering narrative-based work.

Talks can be designed around a particular theme, challenge or audience, and can range from short keynotes to longer interactive sessions combining ideas, stories, discussion and practical exploration.

Applied FiLm Development & Production

My approach to film begins with the same belief that underpins Narrative Alchemy: stories can create awareness, connection and change. I develop human stories that help audiences encounter different perspectives, recognise the pressures people face and reflect on their own understanding.

This work is delivered through 2 Pears Film, the not-for-profit social enterprise I co-run. Through film development and production, we bring together storytelling, creativity and social purpose to make films that open up conversations and support learning.

Whether a film is intended for education, training or a wider audience, the starting point is always the story, the people at its heart and the conversation it can begin.

Explore our work at 2 Pears Film.

LET'S TALK

CASE STUDY 1

How do you use story to create connection, trust and understanding?

CASE STUDY 2

How do you use narrative to turn awareness into action?

CASE STUDY 3

How do you use story to explore vulnerability in a culture of strength?

Whatever the context, I start with the change you're trying to create. What do you want people to Think, Feel, Know or Do differently?

From there, I explore what is happening now. What narratives are already operating? What matters to the people involved? How are they making sense of the situation? What might be driving existing behaviours? What is getting in the way of change?

Only then do I start thinking about the intervention.

That matters because the same apparent problem can have different causes. An intervention designed around what we assume is happening may inform people, engage them or even move them, without changing the thing we actually wanted to change.

The aim is to understand the problem well enough to develop the right response, and then deliver it in a way that has the best chance of making a difference.

Start

with

Change

Research & Methodology

My work is informed by narrative theory alongside behavioural, cognitive, developmental and social psychology, and by more than twenty years of practical experience creating narrative-based work with different audiences and communities.

I am particularly interested in how people make sense of experience, how existing beliefs and narratives influence what we notice and how we respond, and why knowing something consciously doesn't always translate into what we do in the moment.

My postgraduate research at the University of Cambridge explored the relationship between narrative, cognition and behaviour. That research, together with my subsequent practice and continued exploration of these ideas, has contributed to the development of Narrative Lens Theory.

I use these ideas as practical tools rather than fixed answers: ways of asking better questions, exploring what may be happening beneath the surface, and developing interventions around what we discover.

Narrative and sense-making

Human beings don't simply experience events. We interpret them.

We connect what is happening now with what has happened before, make assumptions about cause and effect, attribute intention, anticipate what might happen next and construct meaning from incomplete information.

Narrative is one of the fundamental ways we do this.

Narrative doesn't simply describe our experience. It helps organise it, giving events meaning and coherence and shaping our sense of what is happening, why it is happening and what might happen next.

The narratives through which we make sense of experience are not necessarily conscious stories that we deliberately construct. They can operate quickly and implicitly, shaped by previous experience, culture, relationships and the environments in which we live.

This makes narrative useful not only as a way of communicating an idea, but as a way of exploring how people are already making sense of it.

Schemas and mental models

We don't encounter new information in isolation. We interpret it through what we already know, believe and expect.

Psychology often describes these existing structures as schemas or mental models: patterns built through previous experience that help us organise information, recognise situations and anticipate what might happen next.

One way of thinking about this is as a map.

Medieval Mappae Mundi weren't simply attempts to record geography accurately. They represented the world as it was understood by the people who created them, incorporating belief, culture, stories, assumptions and ideas about what was important. They were maps not simply of the physical world, but of a particular way of making sense of it.

Our mental models can work in a similar way. They are not the territory itself. They are our internal maps of the territory, built through experience and continually used to help us navigate what happens next.

They are essential. Without them, we would have to make sense of every new experience from scratch. But they can also shape what we notice, what we overlook and how we interpret ambiguous information.

This matters when we are trying to create change.

Giving somebody a new fact, message or experience doesn't mean it arrives on a blank page. It encounters an existing map of how the world works. New information might strengthen that map, be adapted to fit it, be dismissed, or sometimes cause the map itself to change.

So an important question when designing any intervention is not simply:

What information do we want people to receive?

It is also:

What story does that information have to encounter?

Thinking, attention and intuition

Not all thinking is deliberate.

Some of our thinking is slow, conscious and reflective. But much of the time we are making rapid judgements, noticing some things and not others, recognising patterns and responding intuitively before we have consciously thought through what is happening.

The distinction is sometimes described as two modes of thinking: a faster, more automatic and intuitive mode, and a slower, more deliberate and analytical one. These aren't two separate systems in the brain, but they provide a useful way of thinking about how we process information and make decisions.

Attention matters too. We cannot consciously process everything happening around us, so attention helps determine what becomes significant and what recedes into the background. What we notice is influenced by context, previous experience, expectations, emotion and what already matters to us.

This helps explain why giving people information isn't always enough to change behaviour. Someone may understand something perfectly well when they have time to reflect, but respond very differently when they are under pressure, emotionally activated or making decisions quickly.

If we want change to happen in those moments, we need to think not only about what people consciously know, but about the patterns, associations and ways of making sense that may be shaping their more immediate response.

For me, that means designing narrative interventions that can engage both: creating opportunities for conscious reflection while also working with the stories, experiences and associations through which people make sense of situations more intuitively.

Values and perspective

We don't all experience the same situation in the same way.

What we notice, how we interpret what is happening and how we respond are influenced by what matters to us: what we are trying to protect, preserve, achieve or become.

I think of values, in part, as narratives about what matters.

Safety matters. Belonging matters. Strength and agency matter. Order and stability matter. Growth and achievement matter. Balance and the wellbeing of the wider whole can matter. But they don't necessarily matter equally to everyone, or equally to the same person in every situation.

Context matters. Under different circumstances, particular values can become more or less important. When we feel threatened, excluded, powerless or uncertain, for example, the way we interpret a situation may change because something we value feels at risk.

Perspective matters too. Two people can encounter the same event, receive the same information and come away with very different interpretations, not necessarily because one has understood it correctly and the other hasn't, but because they are encountering it through different experiences, expectations, values and ways of making sense of the world.

This becomes particularly important when we are trying to create change. If we understand only what we want somebody to think or do differently, but not what currently makes their response meaningful or coherent to them, we may design an intervention that makes perfect sense from our perspective but very little sense from theirs.

Narrative Lens Theory

Narrative Lens Theory is a framework I have developed to bring these ideas together and make them practically useful when exploring behaviour and change.

It starts from the idea that we encounter the world through a narrative lens: an evolving way of making sense of experience shaped by what has happened to us, what we have learned, what we expect, what matters to us and the stories we hold about ourselves, other people and the world around us.

That lens influences what we notice, how we interpret what we notice and how we respond.

It can also help us explore why behaviour that appears irrational, unhelpful or difficult from the outside can make sense from inside somebody else's perspective.

Rather than beginning with:

'Why would they do that?'

we can ask:

'What would have to be true, from where they are standing, for that response to make sense?'

Narrative Lens Theory explores this through Safety Narratives, Value Narratives and Control Narratives, alongside the Capacity States through which we recognise, hold and integrate different perspectives.

SAFETY NARRATIVES

Human beings have fundamental needs around safety, security, being seen and heard, and connection.

But what makes us feel safe is not objective or universal.

Our experiences help create narratives about what safety looks like, where threat might come from, who can be trusted, what belonging feels like and what we need in order to feel secure.

I call these Safety Narratives.

For one person, safety might mean closeness and connection. For another, it might mean independence and control. Safety might be found in certainty, strength, status, familiarity, belonging, achievement or being able to disappear from attention.

These narratives do not have to be consciously articulated. We may never explicitly think, 'This is what I need in order to be safe.' But our understanding of safety and threat can still influence what we notice, how we interpret other people's behaviour and how we respond.

And a Safety Narrative that once made sense may continue operating after the circumstances that created it have changed.

Understanding what feels safe, unsafe or at stake can therefore be an important part of understanding behaviour.

VALUE NARRATIVES

We also hold narratives about what matters. I call these Value Narratives. I currently explore these across six broad territories:

Survival: narratives concerned with safety, security, protection and meeting immediate needs.

Belonging: narratives concerned with connection, identity, acceptance and being part of something.

Strength: narratives concerned with agency, autonomy, capability, status and the ability to act upon the world.

Order: narratives concerned with stability, structure, rules, predictability and how things should work.

Growth: narratives concerned with progress, achievement, opportunity, development and possibility.

Balance: narratives concerned with holding different needs, perspectives and systems alongside one another and considering the wellbeing of the wider whole.

None of these is inherently good or bad. Each can be necessary, functional and appropriate. Each can also have a shadow.

Survival can become self-protection at the expense of others.

Belonging can become tribalism, exclusion or nationalism.

Strength can become domination, aggression or bullying.

Order can become conformity, rigidity or bureaucracy.

Growth can become greed or relentless accumulation.

Balance can become appeasement, stagnation or paralysis.

The aim is not to decide which Value Narrative somebody 'is'. We all hold multiple values, and their relative importance can change according to context.

The useful questions are:

What matters here?

What feels threatened?

Which values are becoming particularly important in this situation?

And how might those narratives about what matters be influencing the way this person or group is making sense of what is happening?

CONTROL NARRATIVES

If Safety Narratives concern what it means to feel safe and Value Narratives concern what matters, Control Narratives concern what we believe we need to do about it.

They are the stories we hold about how to act upon the world in order to protect, secure or fulfil something that matters to us.

They often have an implicit structure:

'If I... then...'

'If I stay in control, then I will be safe.'

'If I am strong, then nobody can hurt me.'

'If I belong to this group, then I will not be alone.'

'If everybody follows the rules, then things will be okay.'

'If I achieve enough, then I will be secure.'

Control Narratives can be highly functional. They help us navigate uncertainty, make decisions and act.

But they can also become flawed, conflicting or outdated.

A Control Narrative may have developed in circumstances that no longer exist. It may work well in one environment but create problems in another. It may successfully protect one thing we value while undermining something else that matters to us.

We can also hold several Control Narratives simultaneously, and they may pull us in different directions.

Importantly, they do not have to be conscious. We can repeatedly behave according to an 'If I... then...' story without ever explicitly articulating it.

This gives us another way of approaching behaviour change.

Instead of asking only:

'How do we stop this behaviour?'

we can also ask:

'What is this behaviour doing for the person?'

'What matters to them here?'

'What feels at stake?'

'What Control Narrative makes this response make sense?'

And:

'What would need to become possible for a different response to feel viable?'

CAPACITY STATES

Safety Narratives, Value Narratives and Control Narratives help us explore the content of somebody's narrative lens.

Capacity States explore something different: the capacity we have to recognise, hold and integrate perspectives beyond our own.

I currently describe six:

Single: I experience my interpretation of the situation largely as the situation itself.

Multiple: I can recognise that other perspectives exist, even if I remain strongly located within my own.

Complex Multiple: I can recognise and hold several perspectives and understand that different interpretations may each contain something meaningful.

Integrative Awareness: I can recognise relationships, tensions and patterns between different perspectives and become more aware of the limitations of my own lens.

Integrative Ability: I can actively work with different perspectives, adapt my understanding and make choices informed by that complexity.

Integrative Flow: different perspectives can be held and integrated with increasing fluency, without requiring the same degree of deliberate conscious effort.

These are not fixed personality types and they are not a ladder of human worth.

Capacity can change according to context, experience, emotion, perceived threat, cognitive load and the issue we are dealing with.

Someone capable of considerable complexity in one area of life may become much more single-perspective when something fundamental to them feels threatened.

This matters when we are trying to create change.

An intervention that requires somebody to hold perspectives they do not currently have the capacity to hold is unlikely to succeed simply because we present those perspectives more clearly.

Sometimes the first task is not to change somebody's mind. It is to create the conditions in which greater complexity can be held.

HOW THE ELEMENTS INTERACT

These elements do not operate independently or in a simple linear sequence.

Our Safety Narratives can influence what feels threatening or secure. Our Value Narratives help shape what matters. Our Control Narratives influence what we believe we need to do to protect or fulfil those things. Our Capacity State affects how much complexity, ambiguity and alternative perspective we can hold while doing so.

And each can influence the others.

A perceived threat can narrow our capacity to hold other perspectives. A strong Value Narrative can make a particular Control Narrative feel necessary. A new experience can challenge an existing Safety Narrative. Greater capacity can allow us to recognise that two apparently conflicting values might both matter.

Together, they contribute to the narrative lens through which a situation makes sense.

USING THE LENS

Narrative Lens Theory is not intended to diagnose people or put them into boxes.

I use it as a way of asking better questions.

What matters here?

What feels at stake?

What does safety look like from this perspective?

What stories are already operating?

What is this person or group noticing, and what might they not be noticing?

What makes the current response coherent from where they are standing?

What perspectives can they currently hold?

What Control Narratives may be shaping behaviour?

And what might need to shift for something different to become possible?

The purpose is not simply to understand behaviour. It is to help design better responses to it.

If we can better understand the narrative through which a situation currently makes sense, we have a better chance of developing an intervention that can encounter that narrative rather than simply talking past it.

That might mean providing information. It might mean creating an experience, introducing another perspective, telling a story, changing the environment, building connection, increasing a sense of agency, creating space for reflection, or helping somebody encounter an alternative narrative that feels possible from where they currently stand.

Narrative Lens Theory is therefore both a way of exploring what may be happening and a framework for thinking about what we might do next.

From research to practice

The theory is only useful if it helps us do something differently.

In practice, I use these ideas as a way of exploring what may be happening beneath the surface of a problem and deciding what kind of response might have the best chance of creating change.

I start with the change we are trying to create.

What do we want people to think, feel, know or do differently?

Then we can begin exploring what is happening now. What narratives are already operating? What matters to the people involved? What feels safe or threatening? What assumptions or mental models might be shaping the way the situation is understood? What Control Narratives might be influencing behaviour? What perspectives can currently be recognised or held?

This helps us move beyond simply asking what message we want to communicate and towards understanding what that message will encounter when it reaches the people we are trying to engage.

From there, we can think about the intervention.

Sometimes that might involve information or training. Sometimes it might mean telling a story, creating an experience, encountering another perspective, facilitating a conversation, making a film, changing an environment or giving people an opportunity to reflect on their own narratives.

Often it will involve several of these things working together.

The aim is not to use narrative for the sake of it. It is to understand the change we are trying to create, understand what may currently be getting in the way, and develop and deliver an intervention designed around what we discover.

An evolving practice

This work continues to evolve.

Narrative Lens Theory has grown out of more than twenty years' of practical work using story to explore complex social issues, alongside my research into narrative, psychology, behaviour and change.

It is not something I regard as finished.

The framework continues to develop as I use it in different contexts, test its usefulness against real situations, encounter other perspectives and bring new research and thinking into the work.

That matters to me.

A framework designed to help us question the stories through which we understand the world should also be capable of questioning its own assumptions.

So I don't use Narrative Lens Theory as a definitive explanation of why people behave as they do. I use it as a lens: a structured way of looking more closely, asking better questions, noticing what we might otherwise miss and exploring what might make change possible.

And, like any lens, it can be adjusted as we learn more.

MORE ABOUT ME

Page updated

Report abuse