Life Story Work with Children Who Are Fostered or Adopted : Creative Ideas and Activities

Life Story Work is one of the key therapeutic approaches to working with adopted or fostered children. While it stands simple, there is more to this work than producing photo albums or memory boxes for children. This accessible book is full of tested techniques and creative ideas for professionals who may have little time and few resources, but who need to carry out life story work that works. The author describes the conditions needed to carry out life story work and feature activities to accompany each of the stages covered: emotional literacy, building resilience, exploring identity, sharing information and looking to the future. This book will be a vital tool for social workers, foster carers, students and any frontline practitioner involved in working with traumatised children. Life Story Work with Children Who are Fostered or Adopted: Creative Ideas and Activities 4 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 1. Building the Foundations for Life Story Work 19 The child 19 The care construct 20 The worker 21 2. Building a Sense of Safety for the Child 26 Creating a Working Agreement 29 Safe Place 31 The Hand of Safety 32 Initials 34 Body Outline – Strengths and Resilience – Version 1 35 Body Outline – Early Warning Signs – Version 2 36 Relaxation Exercises 37 3. Emotional Literacy 41 Mood Board or Collage 44 Feelings Charades 45 Shields 47 Body Drawing 48 The Worry Tree 49 The Bag of Feelings 50 4. Resilience and Self-Esteem 52 Magazine Self-Portrait 55 How I Make Myself Feel Better 56 Finding the Hero in the Child 57 What Can I Feel Proud Of? 58 Like Me/Not Like Me? 60 Star on the Door 61 5. Identity 62 Hand or Footprints 65 Life Graph/Life Map 66 Draw Your Family 67 Sculpting 68 Design an Island 71 Child-Friendly Genograms/Family Trees 72 6. Information Sharing and Integration 74 Life Graph/Life Map – Part 2 78 The Parenting Game 81 Moving Calendar 84 Metaphorical Stories 86 Building Strong Walls 91 Secret Seal 94 7. Looking to the Future 95 Welcome Mat 98 Make a Wish 99 Moving On 100 Healing Collage 101 The Future Self Drawing 103 Candles 105 References 108 Index 111 Life story work is one of the key therapeutic approaches to working with adopted or fostered children. While it sounds simple, there is much more to this work than producing photo albums or memory boxes for children.This accessible book is full of tried and tested activities and creative ideas for professionals, parents and carers who may have little time and few resources, but who need to carry out life story work that works for children. The authors describe the optimum conditions in which to carry out life story work and feature activities to accompany each of the necessary stages: creating a sense of safety, emotional literacy, building resilience, exploring identity, sharing information and looking to the future. This book will be a vital tool for social workers, foster carers, adopters, students and any frontline practitioners involved in working with traumatised children. This is an accessible book full of tested techniques and creative ideas for professionals who may have little time and few resources, but who need to carry out life story work that works. The author describes the conditions needed to carry out life story work and feature activities to accompany the different stages covered.