Therapeutic Life Story
Therapeutic life story work is a specialised form of life story work designed to help individuals, particularly children in care, understand and process past experiences, particularly traumatic ones, in a safe and supportive environment. It aims to promote emotional well-being, strengthen attachments, and foster a positive sense of self.
The Life Story Worker researches the young person’s life so that they can provide accurate information, accessing children’s service files and other necessary documents to build up a picture of the child’s history, this usually includes interviewing birth family and previous Foster Carers.
Direct work sessions with the child and Carer using the child’s researched history and their own memories creatively recorded on rolls of wallpaper using drawings, eco maps, fact and fiction exercises, timelines etc. The wallpaper will also include “feelings/loss/change” work. The end stage is the creation of a Life story Book, but the most important part of the process is what is recorded on the wallpaper.
Goals of Therapeutic Life Story:
1. The child has a deeper understanding and acceptance of their life history and a more positive and healthy self-identity
2. Children are less pre-occupied with questions and the not knowing and as a result, they are often calmer and more focused in their thinking and behaviour
3. The child and primary Carer ultimately have a deeper understanding of each other’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours and so attachments are greatly strengthened
4. Deeper understanding and stronger attachments often leads to a decrease in the likelihood of a placement breakdown
Our Therapists
All our therapists are experienced and highly qualified professionals. We provide Individual, Family and Group Therapy. Our team specialises in the model of Theraplay® and have been successfully supporting families since 2005.
Our team accesses regular CPD with experts in their fields through our training company. Such as, DDP, Sensory attachment integration, MIM method D-EIS (Dyadic Emotional interaction Style) scoring and EMDR. As well as attending some of our most recent conferences and training events being; Trans and non-binary, Inside I’m Hurting and Respecting Biology.
jeanette ellis
dramatherapist & certified theraplay practitioner
Lisa smallwood
dramatherapist, SAI PRACTItioner & theraplay foundational practitioner
Becky wright
art therapist
sophie mclatchy
play therapist & intermediate theraplay practitioner
Delphine spencer
ART PSYCHOTHERAPIST & ATTACHMENT FOCUS THERAPIST
Grace lane
certified theraplay practitioner, emdr informed, ddp informed
sue martin
Psychotherapist, supervisor & DDP Informed practitioner
Jo williams
certified theraplay practitioner, trainer & supervisor, dramatherapist
Our Therapy Suite
The Therapy suites are equipped with all the necessary equipment to provide a safe and engaging environment for the children and families to explore their therapy in a non contaminating space allowing for everyone to fully relax.
We have suites based in Corby, Market Harborough, Leicester, Northampton and Milton Keynes allowing a diverse service area.
