Why Voices Tie to Identity, and Identity Is Health: What 20 Years of Physiotherapy Taught Me About Children's Stories
Dec 11, 2025I made a comment on Instagram this week that stopped people in their tracks:
Our voices tie to our identity, and our identity is our health.
Let me explain what I mean.
What I Really Did in Clinic for 20 Years
After two decades in physiotherapy clinics, here's what I learned:
You're not really solving back pain. You're not really solving knee pain or shoulder pain.
You are, but they're a byproduct.
Here's the truth people don't talk about:
Many people live with back pain. Many people live with chronic conditions. The pain exists, it's real, but they manage.
It's when that pain stops them doing what's important to them, when it affects their identity, their relationship with themselves and the world around them, that's they walk through the clinic door.
The presenting complaint is never the actual problem.
The Moment Everything Changes
It's during the process of speaking their story that people express their identity. That's when they start to understand it themselves.
"I can't play with my grandchildren anymore."
"I can't do my job the way I used to."
"I don't recognise myself when I look in the mirror."
That restoration of identity, helping someone return to being the person they recognise, is an absolutely vital component of health.
Not just physical health. Health.
What This Has to Do With Children's Stories
This is why I so passionately believe storytelling is vital for children, especially now, when we're facing a huge mental health crisis in our young population.
When a child says "I hate writing" and we respond with correction and red pens, we're not just addressing literacy.
We're addressing their identity as someone who "can't" versus someone who "can."
We're reinforcing: "Your voice needs fixing before it's worth hearing."
The Identity Shift
When 465 children become published authors through StoryQuest™, we're not just improving engagement rates or literacy outcomes.
We're restoring identity:
- "I am someone whose voice matters."
- "I am someone who creates."
- "I am someone who gets heard."
- "I am someone who perseveres."
- "I am someone capable of greatness."
That shift from "I can't" to "I am" is the exact same shift I witnessed thousands of times in clinic.
The Clinical Parallel
In physiotherapy:
Person walks in: "My back hurts."
What they're really saying: "I can't be the person I need to be."
Treatment isn't just exercises: It's restoring their identity as capable, functional, whole.
In StoryQuest™:
Child says: "I hate writing."
What they're really saying: "I can't do this. I'm not good at this. This isn't for me."
The intervention isn't just literacy: It's restoring their identity as creative, capable, heard.
Why This Matters Now
We're living through a children's mental health crisis. Therapy waiting lists are two years long. Schools are overwhelmed.
But here's what 318 children told us in written evaluations, analysed using gold-standard Classic Grounded Theory methodology.
When given complete creative freedom, when their voices were captured exactly as they spoke them, when they became authors of their own stories, we documented seven universal transformations:
1. Joyful Engagement — Genuine enthusiasm replaces compliance
"Today felt amazing and joyful"
"There's so much extraordinary emotions"
"Amazing! Best day ever! I feel more confident"
2. Creative Freedom — Discovery of creative choice
"It makes the story more my type. And what I want"
"I like writing my own story with no rules... only my rules! Not anybody else's"
"Normally you have to follow the teacher, but this time you're more free"
3. Immersive Storytelling — Deep focus states emerge
"I felt like I was in another world"
Flow states where time disappears and creativity flows naturally.
4. Overcoming Challenges — Persistence through difficulty when it's purposeful
"Hard but worth it"
Children persist through struggle when it's meaningful, not arbitrary.
5. Pride & Achievement — Self-generated confidence
"I couldn't believe I wrote such a long story"
"I felt like a real author writing my own story"
Surprise at unexpected capabilities.
6. Dreams of Authorship — Identity shift from "student who writes" to "author"
"I want to be an author when I grow up. I wish I could do this everyday"
"Maybe I'll publish my own story"
Career aspirations emerging after a single day.
7. Social Connection — Peers support rather than distract
"We could stay on the work all day"
"I hope that every year 6 class in north-west Yorkshire gets to experience this"
Community strengthens creative purpose.
These seven transformations work together as an interconnected system: Joyful Engagement emerges when students experience Creative Freedom → This enables Immersive Storytelling → Which requires Overcoming Challenges → Success generates Pride & Achievement → Which sparks Dreams of Authorship → All strengthened through Social Connection.
That's not just literacy improvement. That's identity restoration at scale.
Zero behavioural incidents across 465 children. 100% engagement. Seven transformations that happen when we stop correcting and start capturing.
20 years of physiotherapy taught me to listen for what people aren't saying.
StoryQuest™ gives children permission to speak, to express themselves.
And when they do? When their words are captured, written down, published, celebrated?
They discover an identity they didn't know they had access to:
"I am an author."
Not "I might be" or "I could be" or "maybe someday."
I am.
Present tense. Published proof.
That's the health intervention nobody's talking about.
Want to help restore children's identity through storytelling?
