Life Story Work
Helping children to understand their life story
‘Life Story Work can increase a child’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem’ and ‘provides an opportunity to show children why they should be proud of themselves’
Ryan and Walker, 2016
We offer a supportive and comprehensive therapeutic Life Story Work service. The work with children is child friendly and accessible, they are supported to process experiences of challenge, abuse and trauma. By filling in the gaps with child friendly information, that is also honest and factual, children have a better understanding of their situation now and into the future.
Children are given the information they need to use during their childhood to support their wellbeing and as a tool for carers and social workers to use in their work with children, supporting difficult conversations about sensitive and complex topics.
Time is also spent forming relationships with parents and other relevant family members so, where appropriate, we can gather useful information from them too.
The Process
Our work combines social work direct work approaches and counselling skills. The feedback we have from other services is that our service is professional and thorough.
When people get in touch to request Life Story Work, there are some processes to follow to ensure we all agree this is the right service for the child.
Our work includes a minimum of 12 direct work sessions with a child, work with the adults who are caring for the child, meeting birth family (where appropriate), attending relevant meetings, gaining information and insights from relevant agencies, reading records and producing the book itself.
A hard copy is provided for the child, as well as a digital copy.
