Story Medicine

About Story Medicine

Story Medicine: Ancient Tales and Their Medicine for Modern Life Ancient fairy tales, myths, and legends contain profound wisdom for modern life. Psychotherapist Joe Summerfield explores traditional stories from cultures worldwide - Greek myths, Grimm's fairy tales, Norse legends, Indigenous tales, African folklore, and more - revealing the medicine encoded within them. Each episode offers three parts: a story told in full, an analysis uncovering symbolic meaning and contemporary relevance, and practical integration exercises to help you embody the medicine. Use it your way: Let these stories accompany your morning coffee, evening wind-down, or household pottering. These tales make perfect companions for quiet moments. Or engage more deeply: the weekly integration practices form a structured personal development course. Over time, this consistent work can significantly shift your experience of life... and it's entirely free. Perfect for: Adults seeking psychological depth, young people exploring life's questions, parents sharing wisdom with children, therapists and educators, mythology enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the collective unconscious and archetypal patterns shaping our lives. Topics explored: Jungian psychology, fairy tale analysis, mythology, depth psychology, personal transformation, archetypal patterns, shadow work, individuation, collective unconscious, traditional wisdom, therapeutic storytelling. New episodes weekly. Hosted by Joe Summerfield, psychotherapist, relational therapist, and creator of Connected State Therapy. Drawing on Jungian psychology and over 20 years of therapeutic experience, Joe bridges ancient wisdom and modern application. From shadow work to individuation, from grief to wholeness, each story offers medicine for navigating the human experience.

Publisher

Joe Summerfield

Category

education · kids & family · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Nov 2025

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

29 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   S2E9 - The Binding of Fenrir: Medicine for Living With What We Fear

   In this episode of Story Medicine, we explore "The Binding of Fenrir" from Norse mythology, as told in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda... a story about what we do with the things we fear, and what it costs us. The gods learn that Loki's three children will one day bring them harm. The serpent is cast into the sea, Hel is sent below, and the wolf is raised among the gods, fed only by the brave Týr. As the wolf grows, the gods try again and again to bind him. When their trickery finally works, it...

2. 

   16 Sept 2026

   S2E8 - The Black Bull of Norroway: Medicine for Claiming Your Own Fortune

   In this episode of Story Medicine, we explore "The Black Bull of Norroway" from Scottish tradition: an old tale about a young woman who goes out to seek her fortune and the long road she must walk to become herself. The youngest of three sisters is carried away by a great black bull she is terrified of, who turns out to feed and protect her. When she loses him through a simple movement, she is left to wander alone, serve seven years to a blacksmith, climb a hill of glass, and claim her own fo...

3. 

   12 Jun 2026

   S2E7 - Princess Bari: Medicine for Feeling Like an Outsider

   In this episode of Story Medicine, we explore Princess Bari, a narrative shaman song from Korean tradition that is still sung over the dead in Korea today. A king throws away his seventh daughter because she is not the son he longed for. Years later, when he and his queen lie dying, only that discarded daughter will make the journey to the land of the dead to fetch the water of life that could save them. What she finds there, and what she chooses to become on her return, turns the one...

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

12 ratings

Contact Story Medicine

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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