"You can’t change what happened to them,
but you can help them change how they carry it.
It’s about finding a new way to tell their truth."

~ Paul, Shrinking ~

Leaders & Staff

Are you struggling to communicate your vision or cultivate a culture of collaboration?

Do your employees lag in morale or productivity?

How much time, profit, and energy are you losing?

Want a simple, effective, and fun way to infuse more trust, connection, and resilience and achieve your outcomes with more ease?

After wrestling with stories, themes, and how narrative shapes identity and culture in a classic books honors program, Amanda chose two divergent, narrative-focal paths. 

First, she decided to raise her son with what she would later understand was Narrative Resonance and Intelligence instead of religious dogma, so that he could answer the most important questions for himself: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What should I do with my time? That experiment was so successful that she begged him to co-author a book about it with her. (Raised by Story)

Second, she opened a coaching business to help entrepreneurs and experts finish books they’d been writing and editing for years. She wondered how these high-performing, over-achieving helping professionals hadn’t been able to achieve this goal until she saw their expression when asked, “Why do you care about this message?” It became clear that most of them did not want to face an old story or wound, and that Amanda would need to become a partner in both the writing and the transformation ahead. For several years, she did some deep (and deeply exhausting) work alongside individuals writing through old traumas and tragedies, developing their Narrative Intelligence and witnessing the power of Narrative Repair. Then, she had an idea: What if she used popular stories (Narrative Resonance) to help them work through shadowy content the way she’d been working through hers while raising her son on Narrative? 

It was stunning.

This shift increased their results and cut their time in her writing program by half on average, strengthened the culture, made her team more efficient, and reduced her burnout as a leader. Oh, and they all had a whole lot more fun!

Amanda immediately distilled her process into narrative-driven frameworks, workshops, writing quests, and transformational encounters, the results of which all continue to confirm the truth that the combination of Narrative Resonance, Intelligence, and Repair accelerate meaningful results.

Review Her Professional Bio and Press Kit
I can attest to the fact that Story is medicine because I followed my inner compass and hired Amanda Johnson to facilitate a Craft Your Own Heroic Narrative workshop for a group of special education professionals I led on retreat. Amanda masterfully helped teachers on the edge of exhaustion and career burn-out tell a new story of empowerment and possibility. Her process helps people move from a place of powerlessness and victimization to a deep sense of agency. Giving educators (who typically work in isolation in their classrooms) a chance to share their stories with peers opened the door for new friendships, healing accountability partnerships, and professional mentorships to grow from the sharing of stories. Following the retreat, several participants credited the work to encouraging them to change their minds about leaving the profession. This is the collective work we need to begin to change the culture within our institutions, and Amanda is the person to lead it.
Dr. Niki ElliottFounder, Mindful Leaders Project
Board of Directors, Polyvagal Institute

“Narrative resilience is the ability to craft coherent, adaptive life stories that integrate adverse experiences, enhancing psychological resilience.”

Kuiper & Borowicz-Sibenik, 2005; Browne-Yung et al., 2017

Narrative Resilience Development

Half- or Full-day Workshops for Leaders and Employees | Virtual or In-person

Virtual Campfires

What if your managers and employees could develop or deepen meaningful connections in a few hours, setting the tone, depth, and reciprocal nature of the relationship?

Choose a theme that will address the obstacle your team is facing.

(Uncertainty & AI Integration, Roles & Skill Gaps, Productivity & Performance)

Experience the:

  • illuminating power of prompted writing reflections

  • attuning power of storytelling in community

  • activating power of narrative intelligence

Map Your Narrative: Strategic Direction

Invite your team to explore possible visions, missions, and strategies in a novel way that draws on the universal language everyone shares—Story.

  • use a story-driven approach to explore and articulate every angle of the mission ahead

  • clarify the next chapter and potential conflicts, and co-write a smoother journey

     

  • practice narrative intelligence and storytelling skills to elevate collaboration and ease

 

Amanda’s narrative medicine workshop on using story as a medium for facilitating awareness, healing, and growth is both magical and revolutionary. She intuitively embodies the vulnerability and courage important to crafting new narratives, serving as a trusted guide for this transformative work. Her inspiring and relatable approach is far-reaching, offering a compelling roadmap for both personal and professional growth quests; and her workshops are dynamic and interactive, leading to an organic sense of connection and community for ourselves and those we support.
Karlyn Pleasants, PsyD.Clinical Advisor and Managing Partner, Anew Treatment Center Scottsdale

Immersive Adventures

3.5 Full Days of Narrative Resonance, Intelligence, and Repair

Unlock the problem-solving superpowers of your top leaders and employees with a creative adventure designed to increase narrative intelligence, uncover hidden saboteurs, and collaboratively co-author better stories.

Amanda’s clients call them YCMTSU (You Can’t Make This Story Up!) Encounters because they are full of moments in which individuals open portals of healing as they hear two parts of their story that they never really tell together, or find the answer they’ve been seeking on the back of a journal that was wrapped when they picked it out, or navigate an ironic series of events that unfold to reveal a truth they’ve been hiding from themselves. These are the moments when something clicks or clarifies… alters and aligns… and someone shouts, “Well, you can’t make that story up!” Below is a sneak peek at some of the retreats that have already empowered individuals from all walks of life to write better chapters for themselves and their loved ones, workplaces, communities, and industries.

Time & Destiny

Perception-jarring, time-traveling, memory-shuffling stories not only guarantee a few evenings of being on the edge of your seats with some new besties, but they create a powerful platform for us to help you see your story from a whole new perspective and maybe even travel back to moments in which you can reclaim your power to discover and unfold your destiny instead of continuing to fall victim to fate.

Contracts & Consent

Dystopian future, past, or maybe even present day stories will probably inspire a gasp or a grasp (or both), but they will also give us one of the most powerful means to uncover and rewrite the unconscious agreements that are holding your personal narrative (and our collective narrative) of disconnection, dysfunction, and disempowerment in place.

Responsibility & Power

Middle worlds and mythical creature stories will not only tap your DNA for all of its innate wisdom, but they will challenge you to explore and release the unnecessary burdens you carry and maybe even ignite even more DNA potential with a new adventure your heart has been craving.

Portals & Pretenses

Timeless wisdom beckons from just beyond the threshold, where the magic runs deep, the charades that protect (and limit) you intensify, and other-worldly mentors and allies lay everything on the line to show you that you were made for more and how to become it.

Truth & Dare

Modern-day jesters push our belly-laugh buttons while they tear down the curtain on the settings, identities, and characters driving your stories, eventually placing the right-colored microphone in your hands and daring you to act like Truth really does set us free.

Polyvagal breathing techniques, centered and grounded mindfulness approaches, cognitive-behavioral modeling, and even some smatterings of psychospiritual methods are intertwined to provide outcomes similar to that of narrative therapy. (And don't forget the dark chocolate—there is research to demonstrate that it really does help us deal with dementors!)

From the perspective of 'deep psychology,' Amanda’s process emulates that of an ancient healing pedagogy of storytelling through writing. She encourages others to define what lies outside of our conscious awareness and may even illuminate that which an author may hold in an unconscious space: thoughts, impressions, and feelings which may not have been previously admitted, even to oneself, including potential collective consciousnesses aspects with cultural and archetypal dimensions.

Amanda’s invitation is in the tradition of depth work—one in which the participant may observe, grapple with, and consider what it means to really heal, and then share that journey with others who may find connection and even hope through the process.
Lonny R. Webb, MSV, LCSWClinical and Forensic Social Work

Customize Your Adventure

Amanda is always thrilled to customize Writing Quests and Immersive Encounters to address relevant and resonant themes and challenges of your particular team.

While the universal themes she’s been utilizing will support anyone on a healing or growth journey, she’d be more than happy to adapt them to your particular needs. Leaders will be invited to contribute to both the development and execution.

Let’s find the most effective, enjoyable, and efficient approach to achieve the mission—some combination or adaptation of the following:

Virtual Campfire 

Introduce your community to the power of Narrative Resonance, Intelligence, and Repair with a short, immersive encounter designed to increase their own personal resilience and professional efficacy.

Map Your Narrative: Strategic Direction

Invite your team to explore possible visions, missions, and strategies in a novel way that draws on the universal language everyone shares—Story.

You Can’t Make This Story Up Encounters

One of the most powerful ways to decrease burnout and increase resilience is to attend a 3.5-day, story-driven encounter where they will have the opportunity to do some personal depth work with other professionals determined to write more powerful personal narratives for themselves and those they love and lead.

Book Time to Discuss Your Narrative Adventure →
Amanda’s work offers an invitation to see storytelling not just as reflection, but as spiritual formation, moral imagination, and a courageous act of leadership.
Bryan Sykes