The Clinical Porch: A Moth-Inspired Storytelling Session

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Franciscan D

Floor: Ballroom Level

Human beings have always communicated by telling stories. Whether used to advocate, entertain or inform, storytelling connects us. This session is inspired by The Moth, an organization that promotes the art of storytelling through live storytelling events and the award-winning Moth Story Hour, heard weekly on NPR stations and podcasts. The Moth’s founder set out to recreate in New York the feeling of Georgia summer evenings where he and his friends would gather on the porch to spin tales. We hope to bring this same spirit to our virtual clinical porch. Participants in this session will learn the elements of a good story and narrative arc. They will hear one of the presenter’s humorous Moth stories about one of his cases. Participants will then have time to develop their own short story and share it in a breakout room with another clinician. Finally, we will reconvene as a group and talk about how to use storytelling in our clinics and how to strengthen our advocacy. We will also talk about how storytelling might be used in other contexts, including in interviews, in an attempt to bridge the divide between doctrinal and clinical teaching, and in evaluations. Participants will leave with a storytelling bibliography, examples of storytelling in academic promotional materials, and storytelling exercises for use with law students.