Using Storysongs to Talk About Mental Health in The Workplace

BY PAUL CURRINGTON

Sometimes you can tell where a story is going. There’s a catch in the voice. An awkward pause. I’m listening through the headset to a co-worker named Tristan tell me a story about a friend he knew years ago in Monterey. He started off talking about what a great and compassionate person she was. He and his wife both loved her. But now the story is turning. His words are slowing down. The confidence he had a minute ago is fading. It feels like he’s not even in the room with me anymore.

Once a week at work I’ve been presenting something I call storysongs on an agency-wide Zoom call. A week or two before each call, I ask someone at work to tell me about a song that means something to them and the story behind it. I record their story, and play it for the agency on our 8am Zoom call. It’s become a very popular segment. Sometimes we get a hundred people listening in. At first, people shared funny stories about misheard lyrics or songs that were played on their first date. But after a while, we started sharing stories that made people stop what they were doing and lean forward to listen closer.

One woman shared the song she sang to her mom as she was dying. A man shared the song he sang quietly to himself as he waited to see if he would be granted asylum in our country 20 years ago. As I listened to Tristan, I could tell that this was one of those stories. Then he said something that no one had ever shared before at work.

He told me about the moment he learned that his friend had ended her life. In his hand was the phone that still contained the unplayed voicemails she had left for him. He hadn’t had time to listen to them yet. Ever since then he goes out of his way to check in on people he hasn’t heard from in a while. He doesn’t want to be haunted by any more unplayed voicemails.

When I played that storysong a week later for the agency, everyone was quiet. For the first time, no one left funny messages in the chat room. I could tell some people were crying. When the song ended, many people unmuted themselves and thanked Tristan for sharing his story. I put the number for the nationwide crisis line up on the screen for anyone who needed it.

All of us at The Stability Network are looking for ways to talk about mental health at work. I’m doing it with storysongs. It’s become a way for someone to take 2-3 minutes to share something important with the people they work with. Playing the music afterward seems to soften the words and bring everyone together. Of course, not all the stories are like Tristan’s. Often the stories are sweet or funny and we all end up singing along afterward. But there’s something about music that’s letting us share stories and feelings we’d be afraid to otherwise.

A couple weeks ago the director of the agency shared her own storysong. Later this year, I’ll be recording the deputy director’s storysong. Management has seen how powerful stories and music can be together. I don’t know what’s next for my agency in how we talk about mental health, but I do know that storysongs is how we learned it was possible.

Special thanks to Megan Hanna of the podcast “My Ten Songs” who sparked the idea to bring something like it to the workplace.

Extra special thanks to Tristan and the Washington State Department of Commerce for allowing me to share the recording.

The name of Tristan’s friend has been silenced in the recording out of respect for the family.

A storyteller and TEDx speaker coach, Paul Currington decided to start sharing his own story of his “lifelong friendship with depression” after an attempted suicide. He sought help and also began treating his depression like an addiction. Today, he says his life has never been better. Even though he still has an occasional bad day, he doesn’t let himself fall into a pain spiral. He says instead of wishing he was happy he now does things that make him happy.