It Started With a Question
Better Stories Therapy... didn’t begin as Better Stories Therapy
It began as KARIMA Solutions, a practice founded on a simple belief: every life moves to the rhythm of the stories that shape it. As the work evolved, one idea became unmistakably clear. No matter the setting, the role, or the conversation, everything kept pointing to the same question:
Why do some stories become prisons… while others become possibilities?
Long before I became a therapist. Long before I stood on stages. Long before I wrote curriculum, facilitated retreats, coached leaders, or performed spoken word poetry. I found myself fascinated by the stories people carried. Not simply the stories they told, but the stories they lived by. I’ve learned those are often two very different things.
Eventually, it became clear that the work had outgrown its name. Everything I was creating - therapy, workshops, speaking, writing, curriculum, poetry - shared the same purpose: helping people understand the stories shaping their lives and intentionally author better ones.
That’s how Better Stories Therapy was born.
Some people discover their calling through a single defining moment. Mine emerged through thousands of conversations.
As a nonprofit leader, I've watched stories shape organizations.
As a coach, I've watched stories shape leadership styles.
As a therapist, I've watched stories shape identity, relationships, and healing.
As a spoken word artist and speaker, I've watched stories give people language for experiences they had carried silently for years.
No matter where I found myself, the same truth kept revealing itself: stories were quietly shaping everything.
Quietly influencing what people believed about themselves. About each other. About what was possible.
Information alone rarely changes people.
People change when they begin seeing themselves differently. When they discover a story they never knew was available. When they realize the future is not simply something that happens to them. The future is something you can intentionally author.
Better Stories Therapy exists for one purpose: to help people author better stories.
Not perfect stories. Better stories. Perfect isn’t the goal. Better is.
A better conversation. A better relationship. A better workplace. A better family. A better community. A better understanding of ourselves. A better future than the one we imagined yesterday.
Transformation doesn't happen all at once.
It happens one line at a time.
Narrative Stewardship
If stories matter… then stories deserve to be cared for. That is what I call Narrative Stewardship.
Narrative Stewardship is the practice of helping people become increasingly intentional stewards of the stories they inherit, the stories they live by, and the stories they leave behind.
Narrative Stewardship asks different questions.
What stories have I inherited without examining?
What stories have shaped my relationships?
What stories are quietly shaping my organization?
What stories am I reinforcing every time I speak?
What stories will remain after I’m gone?
Narrative Stewardship recognizes that stories are never merely personal.
Every story touches another.
Every conversation becomes part of someone else’s memory.
Every act of leadership becomes part of an organization’s culture.
Every parent helps write the stories their children will one day tell themselves.
Every teacher.
Every coach.
Every pastor.
Every manager.
Every friend.
Every partner.
Every therapist.
Every one of us is already shaping stories.
The only question is whether we will do so intentionally.
The Better Stories Method™
My work is guided by a four-part methodology that helps people move from awareness to intentional action
DISCOVER
Gain an honest understanding of your current story before rushing toward solutions.
DISCERN
Clarify what matters most and identify the story worth building.
DEVELOP
Create practical strategies that bridge today’s reality with tomorrow’s possibilities.
DEPOSIT
Invest your time, attention, relationships, and resources where they will create the greatest long-term impact.
The Better Stories Method™ is intentionally simple.
Four practices. Endless applications.
The real transformation isn’t found in knowing the steps, it’s found in learning how to move through them.
Thank You for Being Here!
If you’ve found your way here, perhaps your story has brought you to a place where you’re searching for something more. More clarity. More connection. More healing. More purpose. More hope.
Or maybe you’re simply curious.
Either way… I'm glad you’re here!
Because there is more to your story... and I’d be honored to become a small part of it.
What Comes Next?
Today, I have the privilege of serving individuals, partners, families, leaders, organizations, schools, churches, and communities through therapy, coaching, workshops, speaking, curriculum development, and other meaningful learning experiences.
What comes next?
I don’t know every chapter that’s still to be written, but I do know this:
I’ll continue doing work that helps people live with greater courage, greater compassion, greater purpose, and greater hope.
One conversation. One relationship. One family. One organization. One community.
One line at a time.
There is more to my story.
