This course is designed to deepen the active listening, container building, space holding, and narrative stewardship skills of midwives, lactation consultants, and perinatal nurses.  It introduces participants to the transformative power eliciting and caring for our clients’ personal narratives, and it teaches the active listening and curious inquiry skills that make space for and support the sharing of fertility, pregnancy, birth, loss, and postpartum stories in client encounters.


Upon completion of this course, the learner will be able to:

  • Define “storykeeping” within the provision of trauma-informed care.
  • Differentiate between situations that call for clinical listening versus the “deep witnessing” involved in storykeeping.
  • Envision ways to integrate the “10 Guiding Principles of Storykeeping” into their own approach to clinical practice.
  • Practice the “10 Clinical Skills of Storykeeping” the perinatal care setting where appropriate.
  • Evaluate, critique, and develop their own skills as storykeepers in both solo reflection and in group practice with other learners.
  • Recognize and understand how to prevent and mitigate risk for both speaker and listener when personal narratives are shared in the clinical setting.


HiveCE is an approved provider of continuing education by the California Board of Nursing, and this course is provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 17686, for 5.5 contact hours, through November 30th, 2025. (This is widely accepted nationwide as continuing education for nurses and midwives. This course is accepted by NARM as Category 1 CE for CPM renewal.)

Approved by MEAC for 5.5 hours of continuing education under approval number M2324-91-0615DE through 6/30/2026.

IBLCE has allocated 5.5 L-CERPs, approval number C2024132 through 7/5/2025.

Note: Course completion does not authorize the learner to use skills outside their scope. Please refer to your state guidelines for determining scope of care.

For information regarding our refund policy and other Frequently Asked Questions, please refer to our FAQ. If you have additional questions, please email [email protected].

  • Abby Hall Luca

    Instructor Bio:

    Rev. Abby Hall Luca, MA is a life-long post-secondary educator and administrator in the fields of Writing, Literature, Midwifery, and Chaplaincy; she has served birthing families in Alabama, Maine, New Hampshire, and India as a midwife, doula, placental encapsulationist, and childbirth educator; and she is an ordained interfaith chaplain whose private practice The Hearth Chaplain supports the strictly secular, the devoutly religious, and everything in between in the search for spiritual meaning, purpose, and wellness. Abby and her steadfast partner Stephen, her magical daughter Ruby, and her moody cat Banksy live in a rambling old farmhouse at the foothills of what are now called the White Mountains, on Abenaki land known to its current occupants as Maine.

    Abby Hall Luca

    MA, Chaplain & Midwife

Course curriculum

  • 01
    1. Starting With A Story...
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    • How To Use HiveCE
    • 1.1 Meet Your Course Guide
    • 1.2 Birth Story
    • 1.3 Video Reflections and Course Map
  • 02
    2. Defining "Storytelling" and "Storykeeping"
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    • 2.1 What is Storytelling?
    • 2.2 What is Storykeeping?
  • 03
    3. Perinatal Healthcare Providers as Listeners
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    • 3.1 Clinical Listening
    • 3.2 Deep Witnessing
  • 04
    4. Storykeeping and Trauma Informed Care
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    • 4.1 The Role of Story in Trauma-Informed Care
    • 4.2 The Lessons of "Yes, and..."
    • 4.3 The Trauma-Informed Storykeeper
  • 05
    5. The Guiding Principles
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    • 5.0 Chapter Framing: The Guiding Principles
    • 5.1 Maintenance of a Spacious and Curious Heart
    • 5.2 Taking Responsibility for Cultivating Clinical Skills
    • 5.3 Deprioritization of Fixing, Saving, Advising, and Correcting
    • 5.4 Centering of the Speaker
    • 5.5 Prioritization of Confidentiality and Double Confidentiality
    • 5.6 Practicing Humility
    • 5.7 Attending to Our Own Wholeness
    • 5.8 Belief in the Transformative Power of Telling Stories
    • 5.9 Belief in the Transformative Power of Hearing Stories
    • 5.10 Holding the Goal of Facilitated Meaning-Making
    • Chapter 5 Resources
  • 06
    6. The Clinical Skills
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    • 6.0 Chapter Framing: The Clinical Skills
    • 6.1 Create a container where the client is in control
    • 6.2 Give room to speak without interruption or interjection, and listen with full presence
    • 6.3 Be attentive to nonverbal communication
    • 6.4 Reflect, summarize, and validate
    • 6.5 Use honest, open questions to advance and deepen the narrative
    • 6.6 Recognize and engage with metaphor
    • 6.7 Invite both mind and heart into the narrative space
    • 6.8 Cultivate a storykeeping phraseology
    • 6.9 Make room for silence
    • 6.10 Always end with gratitude
    • Chapter 6 Resources
  • 07
    7. Cultivating Safety
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    • 7.1 Storyteller Safety
    • 7.2 Storykeeper Safety
    • Chapter 7 Resources
  • 08
    8. Final Steps for Course Completion
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    • Final Thoughts
    • Post Test
    • Evaluation Questions

Course Evaluation Comments

Shared with permission from our

“Thank you for sharing your stories with us Abby. Thank you for sharing what you have learned in a way that I can learn from and improve myself, my relationships and my practice.”

Sherry S

Certified Professional Midwife

“Wonderful course! Educational, & a bonus helped me personally. Beautifully done. Thank you.”

Janell M

Midwife

“Loved this course. Very engaging and interesting! Appreciate the attached handouts to circle back around! Great for something different.”

Morgan G

Licensed Midwife

“Abby provided an amazingly clear, thoughtful, complete overview of trauma-informed storykeeping. Even after 40 years of caring for others in a business or midwifery environment, I was reminded to "deprioritize fixing, saving, advising and correcting" when storykeeping. (*mind blown*) I loved hearing that I am a companion and that listening and holding space is helping; is making a difference. (again, *mind blown*). Abby's use of stories interspersed with the learning material was great. The stories made the connections for me. I also loved the pdfs - I have printed out and posted the 10 guiding principles and "The Clinical Skills." Listening to this course has changed, for the better, the way I have responded to a current client. Thank you for this great course.”

Joyce K

Certified Professional Midwife

“I also am a midwife and a chaplain and I am extremely pleased with the content, execution and delivery, and overall compassion and humility with which this course was presented. Thank you thank you thank you :-)”

Leah H

Certified Professional Midwife

“I seek intentional professional development - this course scratched the itch. The blend of the instructor's storytelling, midwifery and Chaplain experiences, references to various authors & behavioral scientists, and cues for the curious questions made this a stellar course. I took heaps of notes and drew many tea cups. I had often thought of a "healing basket" as a symbolic container for professional/life experiences (basket contents range from benign to crisis-level events: head lice to IUFD) I draw on all these experiences & loved when the instructor said "strong basket," I felt like she was talking directly to me. Her use of metaphors and having "picture thoughts" resonated with me. Excellent cadence and tone. I see why she is a professional keeper of stories.”

Midwife and Birth Center Owner

Certified Professional Midwife

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“Abby provided an amazingly clear, thoughtful, complete overview of trauma-informed storykeeping. Even after 40 years of caring for others in a business or midwifery environment, I was reminded to "deprioritize fixing, saving, advising and correcting" when storykeeping. (*mind blown*) I loved hearing that I am a companion and that listening and holding space is helping; is making a difference. (Again, *mind blown.*) Abby's use of stories interspersed with the learning material was great. The stories made the connections for me. I also loved the pdfs - I have printed out and posted the 10 guiding principles and "The Clinical Skills." Listening to this course has changed, for the better, the way I have responded to a current client. Thank you for this great course.”

Joyce K

Certified Professional Midwife

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