What is storytelling?

It boggles me that my two main “professions” have both been apparently unknown to most of the population. Occupational therapy (OT) may have been poorly named and thus is misunderstood. But storytelling is ancient and modern – how can it be “unknown”??

Recently, I heard it mentioned that this is because storytelling does not have a body of criticism, which I interpret as critiquing literature (? feel free to comment and help me here). Yet, when doing a formal database search, there is literature about storytelling in science, business, and education. I need to read and ponder more. I invite you into this exploration. Storytelling deserves a seat at the Big Table in culture and funding. How do we accomplish that? How do we get people to realize that this art form is as important as music, theater, visual arts, etc., and probably predates them all?

Side-thought: OT may have less status because it is thought of as a women’s profession. Could that be a facet of the storytelling challenge? I say this knowing that both have many male practitioners, yet it is not an even distribution.