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Capturing Essence for Care: Storytelling that Promotes Personhood in Healthcare
Feeling overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities? Struggling to stay present and patient when you're stretched thin? Transform your caregiving relationships in just minutes with evidence-based storytelling strategies that honour the whole person—not just their needs.
Listen for practical tools to:
- Open deeper conversations with aging loved ones, even when time is scarce
- Access life story approaches that reduce caregiver stress and burnout
- Hear real conversations with people with lived experience, including persons living with dementia
- Build meaningful connections that sustain you through the demands of caring
Host Lisa brings together personal historians, digital storytellers, healthcare practitioners, family caregivers, and seniors themselves. Each episode delivers actionable insights for anyone balancing multiple caregiving roles—whether you're supporting aging parents while raising children, managing care from a distance, or working in healthcare while caring for family.
Perfect for: The sandwich generation, family caregivers, adult children of aging parents, healthcare providers, long-term care staff, home health aides, personal support workers, memory care teams, social workers, activity staff, and anyone seeking to preserve dignity and connection in their caregiving relationships.
Join caregivers already transforming their relationships. Discover how small storytelling moments create profound connections—and give you the resilience to keep showing up with compassion.
Please join this community by following the show.
Capturing Essence for Care: Storytelling that Promotes Personhood in Healthcare
5. Storytelling as Healing: Kristy Wolfe on Vulnerability and Authenticity in Digital Narratives
Show Notes
Kristy Wolfe is a digital storytelling facilitator and a Wolfe Pack Warrior. She believes there is beauty in every story and she champions real stories in marketing and communication. Kristy exposes the human side of any organization, with consideration for ethics in storytelling, as well as storyteller wellness every step of the way.
As a Common Language DST Certified Facilitator and Trainer, Kristy helps individuals and social purpose organizations share meaningful stories, turning their unique experiences into compelling narratives that inspire action.
Kristy shares some of her own lived experiences within the context of each workshop she facilitates to validate that authenticity, openness, and vulnerability are essential to creating meaningful digital stories.
Episode Key Messages
- Kristy shares about the podcast she hosts for Common Language DST called, Co-Created, where she takes you behind the scenes of digital storytelling.
- How photography and storytelling helped Kristy when her son required them to spend time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
- Kristy explains how it helps to share her own story so other medical families know that she can relate and understand.
- The four phases of DST: finding the story, telling the story, crafting the story and sharing the story.
- The importance of ‘sharing the story’, enhancing storyteller wellbeing and different ways digital stories can be used.
- Kristy’s experience with helping her father-in-law share his life story and legacy of their business in 4-5 minutes. (the digital story is called “Legacy”)
- Kristy mentions Guided Autobiography and her current interest in the Medical Assistance in Dying Digital Stories
- Discussion on how we share stories through voice, imagery, photography and environment.
- Kristy talks about the Common Language Story Slam and the video done to highlight McCormick Dementia Services, a non-profit organization in London, Ontario that provides compassionate care to the community. The volunteer storyteller, Beth, will be on a future episode!
Other Links Mentioned
- Hugs n Bugs
- Kristy's interview with Lisa on Co-Created
- Kristy's discussion with Maureen Leier (discussing Medical Assistance in Dying and other topics
Thank you for listening!
Do you have a question or a topic related to "capturing essence for care" that you would like discussed on the podcast? Send Lisa an email: awestruckaspirations@gmail.com
Interested in learning more?
Intro and outro music with thanks: Upbeat and Sweet No Strings by Musictown
