Story Therapy

  Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles I never imagined that the most pivotal moment of my life would begin with a stranger sitting on my bed. It was a quiet weekday morning in Jordan Bay, a sleepy coastal town on Australia’s eastern edge. I had just returned from the supermarket, arms full of groceries, deliberately choosing a time when most locals would be at work. I wanted solitude. I wanted silence. I wanted to write. Instead, I unlocked the door to my rented studio apartment and found a teenage boy—no older than eighteen—perched calmly on my bed. I froze. He looked up, startled but not afraid. I, on the other hand, was gripped by panic. I dropped my grocery bags and bolted out the door, heart racing. Who was he? How did he get in? Was I in danger? I reached for my phone, ready to dial triple zero. But before I could press the call button, the boy stepped out and raised his hands in ap...

  A School Reunion, A Whispered Secret, and a Marriage on the Edge. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles Have you ever made a life-altering decision based on a misunderstanding? I did. And it cost me my marriage. I’m Chloe Bennett, a schoolteacher from Sydney. I was married to Ethan Bennett for 21 years. He’s a successful businessman, charming, generous, and deeply loyal — or so I believed. What happened at his school reunion in Albury last year changed everything. Or rather, what I thought happened. This is not just a story about betrayal. It’s about assumptions, silence, and the stories we tell ourselves when we’re afraid to ask the truth.     Ethan and I met through mutual friends in Sydney. I was recovering from a painful divorce — my first husband left me when we discovered I couldn’t have children. Ethan was kind, patient, and never made me feel incomplete. He had his own p...

  From estrangement to empathy: a journey through loss and reconciliation. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles The house on Ashgrove Lane was a quiet one. Not silent—there was the hum of the refrigerator, the occasional creak of floorboards, the distant bark of a neighbour’s dog—but quiet in a way that felt deliberate. As if sound itself had been asked to behave. Inside lived two people: Eleanor Grace and Thomas Reed. Once lovers, now strangers bound by a lease and a pact. The house was split—not physically, but emotionally. Eleanor occupied the upstairs bedroom and the sunlit kitchen. Thomas had claimed the study and the basement, where he tinkered with old radios and repaired clocks that no longer ticked. They shared the bathroom, the mailbox, and the silence. Three years ago, they had been inseparable. Their love had been the kind that made friends roll their eyes and strangers smile. But ...

  “She Paid Her Bills, But No One Noticed She Was Gone.” A haunting true-to-life mystery of urban isolation in Sydney. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles Maya Lin had covered dozens of stories in her freelance career — housing crises, council corruption, the slow death of Sydney’s old neighbourhoods. But nothing prepared her for the call she got on a rainy Tuesday morning in October. “They found a body,” her friend whispered over the phone. “In a locked apartment. Been there for years.” The building was a crumbling 1960s walk-up in the inner west, long slated for demolition. Developers had finally moved in, eager to replace it with glass towers and rooftop pools. But when the demolition crew forced open the door to Unit 12B — a unit thought to be vacant — they found something else. A skeleton.   The Discovery The apartment was sealed from the inside. The windows were shut, the door ...

What happens when we forget to pause—and how one woman chose to rebuild. (Names have been changed to protect privacy) Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles 🌧️ Introduction: When Fear Becomes a Habit It was a quiet Thursday evening when I received the call. My friend’s voice trembled as he shared the news: his younger brother, Daniel, had passed away—suddenly, inexplicably, while working late at his desk. Daniel was only 34. A devoted husband, a rising manager in a Sydney tech firm, and someone who, until recently, had seemed invincible. But beneath the surface, Daniel had been drowning in fear. Fear of redundancy. Fear of disappointing his bosses. Fear of not being enough. This story isn’t just about Daniel. It’s about all of us who’ve let fear dictate our rhythms. It’s about the cost of ignoring our inner alarms. And most importantly, it’s about the hope that still waits quietly behind the storm....