Therapeutic Life Story Work

1. Information gathering

   This stage involves the gathering of in-depth historical information about the child: including both pre-birth and post-birth history to create an information bank.  The information is sensitively gathered from various sources to develop a holistic view of the child's experiences, including understanding how the child potentially sees themselves, others and the world around them.

2. Internalisation

   This stage involves attending sessions with the child and their current primary caregiver(s) to build a rapport that facilitates the child beginning to explore a coherent narrative about their life journey, helping them to develop an informed positive sense of self.  It is an opportunity for exploration and reflection, through play and creativity, of thoughts and feelings related to past and present life experiences.  The process aims to reconstruct and reconnect a child’s personal narrative.

3. Life story book

   This final stage occurs towards the end of the direct work with the child and their primary caregiver(s), when a life story book is put together, incorporating the child's narrative developed during the ‘internalisation’ stage and enabling them to have ownership of their life story.