Helping traumatized children develop the story of their life and the lives of people closest to them is key to their understanding and acceptance of who they are and their past experiences. The Child's Own Story is an introduction to life story work and how this effective tool can be used to help children and young people recover from abuse and make sense of a disrupted upbringing in multiple homes or families. The authors explain the concepts of attachment, separation, loss and identity, using these contexts to describe how to use techniques such as family trees, wallpaper work, and eco- and geno-scaling. They offer guidance on interviewing relatives and carers, and how to gain access to key documentation, including social workers' case files, legal papers, and health, registrar and police records. This sensitive, practice-focused guide to life story work includes case examples and exercises, and is an invaluable resource for social workers, child psychotherapists, residential care staff, long-term foster carers and other professionals working with traumatized children. Contents: Foreword, Mary Walsh, Co-founder and Chief Executive of SACCS. 1. Who am I? The Importance of Identity and Meaning. 2. A Tale of Two Children. 3. The Truth and Something Other Than the Truth. 4. Interviewing: Art not Science. 5. Safe at Last: Providing a Safe and Stable Environment. 6. Internalization. 7. Making the Book. 8. But Does it Really Work Like This? 9. Life After Life Story. Appendix: The Story of SACCS. References. About the Authors: Richard Rose is the Director of Child Trauma Intervention Services Ltd and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is also a Fellow of the Berry Street Childhood Institute, part of Berry Street, Australia and Lead Consultant for Clinical Practice at SACCS, UK. He undertakes consultancy and training on Life Story Therapy and working with 'hard to reach' children and adolescents, and develops academic training programmes in the UK and internationally. Terry Philpot is a journalist and writer, and has written and edited several books on subjects including adoption, sex offending and work with children traumatised through abuse. He also works as a volunteer to befriend long-term prisoners. |