Stories heal and stories inspire: the launch of 'Untold and Retold: Unblocking the hidden stories which shape our lives'
After years of carrying the emotional impact of trigeminal neuralgia alone, Gerwyn worked with me to transform a deeply personal experience into a fictional chapter in Untold and Retold. Through writing, he found the confidence to speak and write openly about chronic pain, mental health and resilience, helping others while continuing his business journey. This is where 'stories that heal' began - a collection of short stories by people who coach and support others.
“The central idea behind my chapter, at first, felt like a selfish one: I needed to get something out that I’d been holding in for a long time. Beyond that, I wanted to share something that might help other people, especially men, to open up and talk. Writing it gave me a lot of satisfaction and an emotional release. It ended up being far more therapeutic than I expected.”
Sometimes the stories that need to be told are not the easiest to write. When Gerwyn Tumelty first came to work with me, our focus was business. His business, Coron, offers project and commercial delivery support, in complex engineering and SME environments. Coron operates with five core values: Decisive, Resilient, Innovative, Visionary and Excellence.
Working together on Coron’s marketing, we explored client success stories as a way of demonstrating those values in action. My approach is to showcase the success stories to help people connect with the deeper reasons behind what my clients do, not just the services they offer. What emerged during those conversations was a more personal story.
Years earlier, Gerwyn had lived through one of the most difficult periods of his life. Between 2017 and 2019, he suffered from trigeminal neuralgia, one of the most painful neurological conditions known in medicine. The pain was relentless and debilitating, affecting every aspect of his daily life. In 2019 he underwent microvascular decompression (MVD) surgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve causing the pain, and thankfully, the surgery was physically successful. From the outside, it might have appeared that life returned to normal.
Although the pain had gone, much of the emotional impact remained unspoken. Gerwyn had continued to carry the experience largely on his own. It wasn't until a particularly difficult period in 2022 that he finally found the courage to tell friends and family how much he had struggled before his diagnosis and surgery. He later spoke publicly about the loneliness, despair and dark thoughts that accompanied that period of chronic pain.
He had lived through it. But the true story had never been told. This is why he decided...
When I introduced Gerwyn to the concept behind Untold and Retold, our collaborative book project, something resonated. The premise of the book is simple yet powerful: stories heal and stories inspire. Writing does not change the past, but it allows us to make sense of it.
Writing creates distance, perspective and meaning. It helps us move from surviving an experience to understanding it. Gerwyn decided he wanted to contribute a chapter.
I encouraged all the contributors to fictionalise their work rather than writing a straightforward memoir or client case study.
This approach gave Gerwyn the freedom to explore the emotional truth of his experience without being constrained by the exact facts. His chapter follows a man on a sailing weekend with two lifelong friends. The friends are fictionalised versions of people close to him, and the setting provides a safe space for describing some of the conversations that had remained unspoken for years. At the heart of the story is a simple but difficult question:
What would it feel like to finally admit to the people you care about that you haven't been okay?
The protagonist reveals that he has hidden the depth of his struggle. He admits that the brave face he showed the world was not the whole truth. Through the conversation that unfolds on the boat, the story explores vulnerability, friendship, trust and the relief that comes when we stop carrying our burdens alone.
Gerwyn decided to write about it to give a voice to emotions that had previously remained hidden, which is often true for men facing difficult emotional situations.
Once the chapter was written, we spent time together on the editorial process with Martina Tyrell, preparing the book for publication and for Gerwyn, the ripple effect began. One of the things I repeatedly see in therapy sessions and Story Healing writing coaching, is that talking about or writing a story rarely changes just one thing. Once we find the courage to tell the truth in one place, other things fall into place and it becomes easier to tell the story elsewhere.
For Gerwyn, the first outcome was increased confidence in speaking publicly about trigeminal neuralgia. Having explored his experiences through writing, he felt able to share his story more openly. This ultimately led to media opportunities, including speaking with BBC Wales to raise awareness of the condition and its impact on mental health. His willingness to speak publicly helped others understand that chronic pain affects far more than the body.
The second outcome was publication. In March 2026, his chapter was published as part of Untold and Retold alongside a collection of stories from other authors. What had once been a private struggle became a story he could proudly share with friends, family and colleagues. Instead of avoiding the subject, he found himself inviting conversations about it.
The third outcome of working together has perhaps been the most significant.
Talking about his experiences and writing opened the door to a more authentic and confident voice.
As Gerwyn became more comfortable talking about his own experiences in the context of his business journey, he began writing more openly about mental health, chronic pain, resilience and the pressures faced by professionals in demanding careers. Around World Suicide Prevention Day, he shared personal reflections on LinkedIn, creating conversations that many people in project environments rarely feel able to have.
Those posts led to writing more blogs and email newsletters to support professional facing stress or illness.
It gave rise to more opportunities to respond and help others who may be facing similar struggles in silence. For me, this is what healing through storytelling is all about – finding, exploring and sharing your story – the one that matters most to your mission.
“I’m not a writer, so getting started was challenging. But once I got into the flow, something released. I found a deep sort of therapy in it. It wasn’t just about me anymore. I started thinking about how all of this affected the people around me too — the people who care so much.”