Metaphora International

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Metaphora International Story Mediation, Adult Education, Consulting
Our mission is to empower authentic stories and help people craft better systems together.
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Metaphora International is a home for story-based learning and collaboration, supporting people and organizations as they navigate change. It is where Story Mediation—a practice of guiding people through their own stories with clarity and presence—is applied to help individuals and teams engage their narratives with purpose and agency. Our work is grounded in the understanding that people make sense of their lives and work through the stories they live and tell—and that valuing those stories strengthens leadership, learning, and collaboration. Through Story Mediation, Collaborative Storytelling, and the method Collaborative Story Craft, we design and facilitate learning journeys, workshops, and group processes that support self-leadership, inclusive dialogue, sensemaking, and organizational development. Our approach to adult learning values well-being, reflection, and participation as the foundation for crafting sustainable and responsible stories—especially during times of transition and uncertainty. Metaphora International hosts and enables story-based learning initiatives, collaborations, and partnerships led by Paulo de Tarso F. Silva, and works with aligned educators and facilitators when appropriate. Our mission is to support authentic stories and help people work better together.

….. A Metaphora International é um lar de aprendizagem e colaboração baseada em histórias, apoiando pessoas e organizações a lidarem com mudanças. Por meio da Mediação de Histórias, da Narrativa Colaborativa e do método Collaborative Story Craft, facilitamos jornadas de aprendizagem, oficinas e processos coletivos que fortalecem a autoliderança, o diálogo inclusivo e a construção de sentido. Nossa missão é fortalecer histórias autênticas e apoiar pessoas a trabalharem melhor juntas.

The Collaborative Storytelling Café:An event to build community around Story Mediation. This Friday online. Free to part...
09/17/2026

The Collaborative Storytelling Café:

An event to build community around Story Mediation.

This Friday online. Free to participate.

Welcome! 🤗

Read more and R.S.V.P at

https://www.metaphorainternational.com/collaborative-storytelling-cafe

The Collaborative Storytelling Café hosted by Metaphora International A monthly gathering for people who love stories — and want to explore where they can take us.

✨Who owns a story? Here, I mean story as the narrative someone chooses to relate to, identify with and tell.When someone...
09/14/2026

✨Who owns a story?

Here, I mean story as the narrative someone chooses to relate to, identify with and tell.
When someone tells us a story, whose story is it?

This is a reflection about authorship and self-leadership with Story Mediation:

When we work with people's stories, it can be surprisingly easy to cross a boundary.

We listen — and begin interpreting.

We hear a challenge — and want to offer advice.

We notice a possibility — and start imagining where the story “should” go.

Even with good intentions, we can begin taking the story somewhere that isn't ours to take.
For me, this is one of the things worth paying attention to in Story Mediation.

How can we accompany someone's story while respecting their ownership of it?

How can our presence support their authorship rather than replacing it with our own?

This requires more than listening. It calls for attention, sensing, judgement and care — and an awareness of when and how we intervene.

This is part of the craft of Story Mediation.
The next Story Mediation Foundation Training begins September 26.

Over 13 weeks, we'll explore this practice together through guided discussion, small-group practice, reflection, observation and case studies.

Learn more and sign up for the Story Mediation Foundations - Training & Certification at

https://www.metaphorainternational.com/story-mediation-foundation-training

*The illustration accompanying this post comes from my book O Elfo Brasileiro na Terra do Natal (Flamingo, 2024), which I wrote and illustrated. In the book, the flame represents Story.

Paulo de Tarso F. Silva

What do you do when someone brings you a story?In our work with people, stories are everywhere.People tell us about thei...
09/05/2026

What do you do when someone brings you a story?

In our work with people, stories are everywhere.
People tell us about their experiences. They make sense of what is happening through stories. They bring stories into learning, leadership, relationships, organisations and moments of change.

And yet, when someone brings us a story, we often feel the urge to do something with it:

Interpret it.

Fix it.

Advise.

Analyse.

Take it somewhere.

But what if there is another way?

Story Mediation is a practice of attending to stories without taking ownership of them.

It invites us to develop a more intentional way of listening, sensing, questioning and creating space for meaning to emerge.

This is the practice we explore in the Story Mediation Foundation Training at Metaphora International.

The next cohort begins at the end of September.

Over 13 weeks, we will explore Story Mediation as a practical, reflective and collaborative practice for people who work with stories, people and meaning.

If this question resonates with your work, perhaps this is a conversation worth entering.

Learn more about the Story Mediation Foundation Training at

https://www.metaphorainternational.com/story-mediation-foundation-training

A professional formation for people who work with stories, groups, and change.

Some milestones deserve to be paused and honoured.I'm grateful to celebrate the successful completion of the first Story...
07/30/2026

Some milestones deserve to be paused and honoured.

I'm grateful to celebrate the successful completion of the first Story Mediation Training and Certification cohort at Metaphora International.

Throughout this journey, we explored with Story—not simply as something to tell, but as something to live, build on, and continuously resignify. Together, we practised deep listening, meaningful dialogue, generative reflection, and Story Mediation as a way of supporting learning, self-leadership, and collaboration.

While I had the privilege of facilitating this journey, every participant helped shape it. Their questions, insights, and willingness to engage have contributed to the ongoing development of Story Mediation as a practice of learning.

To the first certified Story Mediators of Metaphora International: thank you for your trust, commitment, and generosity. It has been an honour to learn alongside you.

This certification is not the end of a course—it is the beginning of a growing community of practitioners committed to helping people and organisations engage with Story in meaningful ways.

Here's to the new Metaphora alumni, and to the many stories that will find voice, be heard, and open new possibilities through your practice!

Paulo De Tarso Silva



Story Mediation grew out of years of research and practice in collaborative storytelling, adult education, and organizat...
02/16/2026

Story Mediation grew out of years of research and practice in collaborative storytelling, adult education, and organizational change.

It now lives through Metaphora International as a distinct professional practice and training journey for people working with groups and collective sensemaking.

A new Foundation Training cohort begins next month.

Link in the bio or at

https://www.metaphorainternational.com/story-mediation-foundation-training






InclusiveLearning
MetaphoraInternational

Dear Metaphora Community, As we know, stories naturally emerge in group work — moments of experience, learning, challeng...
02/12/2026

Dear Metaphora Community,

As we know, stories naturally emerge in group work — moments of experience, learning, challenge, and change.

Story Mediation offers a grounded practice for working with those stories in ways that support shared understanding, authentic voices, and people working better together.

Metaphora International is opening registration for the next Story Mediation Foundation Training cohort beginning next month.
Learn more and register here:

A professional formation for people who work with stories, groups, and change.

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Ottawa, ON
K4A5E3

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