Find your story + new ways to connect
Keen to hear what you think
I’m Bel Lopez, and this is Story Doula, a newsletter exploring why we tell stories and how we stay connected— with our communities, with each other, with ourselves.
Hello. I was the ghost of Substacks past there for a while, but I’m back for the new year, and wanted to tell you about what I’ve been doing in the meantime. First, a new course for those based in the Illawarra, Australia:
Storytellers and writers draw on life experiences to create fiction, memoir, documentary, poetry, plays and more. How do we decide what we want to share, and what should stay private or obscured, at least for now?
Designed for storytellers who are starting a project, or those stuck in a rut, this inspiring, germinating course will gently spark creativity, curiosity and the confidence to turn your personal stories into creative work.
Over the course of four workshops, participants will explore how their experiences can become narratives, and which mediums might best serve them for sharing these stories.
Each two-hour workshop will be led by Story Doula Belinda Lopez, an award-winning documentary maker, writer and narrative practitioner, who has long collaborated with storytellers, journalists and writers to help their works come to life.
Hosted by the South Coast Writers Centre, I’ll be giving this course over four Tuesdays from May 5. The workshops are designed to gently loosen up any fear, hesitation, confusion or numbness that overrides your desire to create, and spark clarity about the way you want to share your stories. You can come to the course with a specific project in mind, or none whatsoever. The tickets are $170 (for SCWC members) or $200 general for all four sessions at Coledale Community Hall.
Story Doula sessions
If you can’t attend this course, or live elsewhere, you might be interested in working with me one-on-one.
For at least a decade I’ve been reading about Narrative Practice, deepening my understanding of this modality, which draws on holistic psychotherapy, anthropology and community work principles. In 2025, while this newsletter lay dormant, I was lucky enough to train as a narrative practitioner at the internationally renowned Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, the home of Narrative Therapy and Community Work.
Narrative Practice feels like a formalising of what I have always attempted to do in my work in journalism, documentary, anthropology and community arts— to help people explore the stories of their lives, and to co-discover other narratives that offer new insights. These skills served not only the people and communities I spoke to, but also the award-winning journalists, writers and documentary makers I have supported working as an advisor with the ABC, Audible and Listnr, among many other places.
I’m now offering individual sessions and group workshops to people who want to explore the stories of their lives, in a non-diagnostic, non-clinical, non-pathologising way, for creative outputs and psychosocial wellbeing. Reach out to me at notes@belindalopez.net for more info, and to organise a 15-minute introduction call, on me.
More coming soon,
Bel