“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
— Maya Angelou (1969)
Personal storytelling for healing, legacy, or remembrance
As a trained journalist and published researcher supporting wellbeing through life transitions, I’m able to provide a personal storytelling service with healing and remembrance in mind.
Whether you’re navigating major change, reflecting on your life, or honouring someone’s memory, storytelling can be a powerful way to process experience and connect with others.
Through relaxed, interview-style conversations, I help capture your story. I may also speak to others (with permission) to include different perspectives and important context. I then write a feature-style article – in first or third person – that’s yours to keep. Nothing is finalised without your approval, and we work together to ensure the version you receive feels true to you.
You can choose to keep the article private, share it with family and friends, or (if it meets certain criteria) you can give permission for it to be posted on the Tessa Spring blog and shared on social media. If shared publicly, it will be attributed as: “Written by Tessa Spring for [first name].”
“Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.”
— Ben Okri (1997)
How this work is approached
This can be offered as an optional part of one-to-one support, when we’re alerady working together. It usually begins with one or more relaxed, interview-style conversations, followed by a period of writing and careful refining.
Where helpful, further conversations or light background research may form part of the process. We work collaboratively and nothing is finalised without your approval.
Most of this work happens remotely, via phone or video, though in-person conversations may be possible depending on location.
My motivation and experience
This service stems from two personal experiences.
Firstly, speaking with women affected by Pregnancy Associated Osteoporosis (PAO). Many shared stories of trauma, resilience, and medical neglect, and wanted to tell their story as part of the healing process, as well as to call for change, but weren’t always happy with the final outcome when they’d spoken to a journalist for a press article due to the news agenda framing the angle of the article.
Secondly, the loss of my step-mum Carol in May 2024. A few months before she passed, she suggested I write an article about her life. Though we didn’t manage it in time, that conversation became the idea for this service: a way to honour life, express emotion, and create lasting meaning through words.
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”
— Thomas Campbell (1825)
Tessa Spring 