Life Work Story

What is Life Work Story?

Traditional Life Story Work is usually a short book prepared for a child who is adopted/fostered to help them to gain an understanding of why they came into Local Authority care.

This workbook often contains inaccurate/confusing information for the child, leaves too many unanswered questions, does not deal with the child’s traumas and fails to tell the story from the child and birth parents’ perspective.

Therapeutic Life Story Work goes much further; it is a Therapeutic “process” undertaken in a sensitive and gentle approach facilitated by an experienced, trained Social Work practitioner working with both child and Carer as a triad. This impartial direct work provides the child with vital information about their past, works through traumas, helps them to make sense of current behaviours/feelings whilst making links with their history.

This approach also helps the Carer to understand the impact a child’s history has on current behaviours and throughout the process this will help strengthen attachments, build up trust and support the child to make positive change for their future instead of them moving into destructive repetitions or re-victimisation.