hank adams

hello, hi, howareya. My name is Hank, and I am a storyteller.

I began my life as a professional writer back in 2010, and I’ve been a jobbing writer ever since. My portfolio is filled with content writing, technical copywriting, speculative fiction ghostwriting, even handwriting (because people still want handmade invitations, announcements and, sometimes, breakup letters).

But my storytelling roots run even deeper than that.

I have the firm belief that the world runs on stories, and that storytelling has the power to unite us a group, a culture and a society. This belief has been confirmed time and time again during my time doing story work in local communities, facilitating group conversations, mediating conflict, and practicing therapeutic narrative principles with my one-on-one clients.

Stories have the power to bring us together. To help us question long held beliefs or biases. To even change the world.

Goblin walks are an opportunity to go out into the woods (or elsewhere, see note below) and simply unpack yourself, your worries, your thoughts, and all the stories you carry.

We walk at your own pace, letting your eyes, ears and other senses lead you, letting the quiet and the fullness of the trees, the birdsong and the smell of the water flow up and over and around us. And you talk. You lay out your stories, and I ask questions. And you may find some new, surprising answers coming up from within.

*a note on disabilities: goblin walks don’t need to take place in the deep woolly wilderness, by any means. a roadside meadow, a walking path behind the grocery store, your own back yard, even right in the heart of downtown. goblinning can be done anywhere. because while taking the time to be out under the trees isn’t always accessible, sitting still or walking slowly, breathing deep and tuning into the here and now is.

All clients are provided with a questionnaire when booking a session, and have the opportunity to list any accommodations, desired modifications, needs or concerns.

*disclaimer: I am a professional storyteller who has trained as a transformational mediator and a trauma- and somatics-informed facilitator. I am also currently participating in a narrative therapy certification program. But I am not a licensed therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist or medical professional.

A focus on dialogue, equality and story sharing unites every type of facilitation I do:

Storycircles are simple things, in the way that people sometimes seem to be simple. Which is to say, simple on the surface. Below? Deeply complex and therefore fascinating.

They are a type of structured dialogue, a tool for community building that focuses on sharing stories through which people can see and hear and connect with each other. Rooted in the Civil Rights movement and drawing from a variety of Indigenous practices, circles are simple to learn and infinitely adaptable to whatever room, group or community in which they take place.

Transformative mediation is based on the foundational belief that people have the capacity to navigate conflict. As a mediator trained in this particular modality, I come into any room understanding implicitly that I am not the expert on the situation. I am only there to listen, and help facilitate a more constructive conversation.

Group conversations are not quite mediations, not quite storycircles – and yet, they may contain elements of both. Group convos are about getting everyone together to sit in a circle, to be present, to participate in conversations around the topic or topics that concern them. And they have the capacity to be deeply transformational in their own right.

*Disclaimer – Again, I am a professional storycircle, and an experienced mediator and facilitator. I am not, however, a certified professional or legal expert.

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My most recent storytelling endeavor is the Gremlin-Style Story Group, a collective and collaborative writing activity in which participants gather, generate a prompt and tell a story together. The rules are simple: be polite, take turns, don’t be afraid to go weird.

And weird we do, indeed, go. But we also have fun, explore collaborative creation, and navigate conflict as a group when different ideas battle for dominance. Where should our hero go? What happens next? How, exactly, does the Big Baddie fall? We figure it all out, together.

Gremlin Groups are fun for writers, creatives, kids, adults who want to have fun, professionals who want their team to bond, and more.

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Interested in booking one of the above? Confused and have more questions? Just want to chat? Drop me a line!

artlifestory@gmail.com