About Us


Mission: To create and support communal experiences of story medicine.
Vision: A world where human harmlessness (Ahimsa) is a primary, living value.
A Work in Progress: Releasing the Pain & Finding the Medicine.

Meta’s Journey

Meta Commerse
Founder and CEO
Akoma Ntoso – “Linked Hearts”

The Body

1988: Bodyworker – Began her private practice seeking a special theme. Story as healing theme emerged in 1992 with clients’ unsolicited stories of trauma. This prompted Meta’s search for her own story, the one she then viewed as something long past, needing none of her attention.

Nyame Nti – “By God’s Grace”

The Story

1994 – 2010: Author committed to healing, continued and completed study of Health Arts and Science, then History and Writing in graduate school. She later blended these disciplines into a community-based approach. As praxis, drawing from her community work, her story and matrilineal legacy, she learned to develop an effective modality for self-transformation.

Gye Nyame – “Go back and fetch ones essence”

The Whole Person

2011:  Founded Story Medicine Worldwide for long-form groups and leadership development.

2015 – Present: Designed and taught classes, workshops, and programs using the modality.

Story Medicine Leaders and Teachers:

Meta Commerse, MFA, CWP is the author of 6 books, including Rainsongs: Poems of a Woman’s Life, The Mending Time (a novel), Blues Doula: Poems by Meta Commerse, and Womaning, a memoir.

Laura Lengnick

Laura Lengnick is a certified Story Medicine facilitator working to cultivate the resilience of land, people and community through a just transformation of our food system.  She has led story medicine circles exploring the lives of those who feed us and our lived experience of climate change.  You can learn more about Laura and her work at cultivatingresilience.com.

Mama Matana

Mama Matanah (age 89) is a Certified Story Medicine Coach, Nutritionist, and Prophetess. Among her greatest gifts are: writing, photography, interpretation of dreams, book publishing, teaching, and healing.

Mama Matanah is a lover, artist, adventurer and healer.  To share healing space with her is to be pleasantly surprised.

Heidi Wood

Heidi Wood is a certified Story Medicine Teacher and mental health therapist. She works to disrupt the status quo at a personal level, helping people change cycles of anxiety and avoidance so they are empowered to make choices based on values instead of fear. She has facilitated story medicine retreats where white people explore white supremacy, strive to break white silence and utilize the power of story to heal.

You can learn more about Heidi and her work at www.bravelittlesteps.com and www.atlanta-cbt.com/heidi-wood-l-c-s-w/

Ellane Chandler

Ellane Chandler, certified Story Medicine Facilitator, shares this about herself: “The process of healing is fascinating, particularly when you can “go back and get” as expressed by the concept of Sankofa and find language for telling the story

“When I went back to a serious mistake I made and re-told the story as if I had made the right choice instead, I learned that beneath the painful consequences of not trusting my own heart and mind, there was always the wisdom of knowing the right path to take. The healing from this was discovering that although I had been afraid to follow my own wisdom, it had never been lost. It has always been there.”

Chris Wells – Teacher (Photo and bio coming soon)

Contact Us at: [email protected]