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

116 Pages·2013·0.34 MB·English

by  Katie Wrench

Trim: 152 x 229mm
Spine Width: 7.69mm
L Katie Wrench and Lesley Naylor
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Life story work is one of the key therapeutic approaches to working ry Life Story Work with
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with adopted or fostered children. While it sounds simple, there is
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much more to this work than producing photo albums or memory r
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Children Who
boxes for children. w
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This accessible book is full of tried and tested activities and creative C
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ideas for professionals, parents and carers who may have little time i
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and few resources, but who need to carry out life story work that r
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works for children. The authors describe the optimum conditions in n
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which to carry out life story work and feature activities to
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accompany each of the necessary stages: creating a sense of o
safety, emotional literacy, building resilience, exploring identity, a or Adopted
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sharing information and looking to the future.
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This book will be a vital tool for social workers, foster carers, e
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adopters, students and any frontline practitioners involved in e
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working with traumatised children. o Creative Ideas and Activities
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Katie Wrenchis a qualified therapeutic social worker, art d
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psychotherapist and foster carer.Lesley Nayloris also an p
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experienced therapeutic social worker and play therapist who
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facilitates a life story consultation clinic. Both authors work with
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children and young people who are fostered or adopted, provide a
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specialist consultation and training to frontline social care ie
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practitioners and foster carers around life story work and are based r
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in Leeds, UK. c
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Jessica Kingsley Publishers y
116 Pentonville Road lo
London N1 9JB, UK r
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Cover design by Blue Box Design JKP

Life Story Work
with Children Who are
Fostered or Adopted
of related interest
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Life Story Therapy with Traumatized Children
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Life Story Work
with Children Who are
Fostered or Adopted
Creative Ideas and Activities
Katie Wrench
and Lesley Naylor
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
First published in 2013
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
116 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JB, UK
and
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright © Katie Wrench and Lesley Naylor 2013
Front cover image source: iStock. The cover image is for illustrative purposes only, and any
person featured is a model.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form
(including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or
not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written
permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copy-
right, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications
for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should
be addressed to the publisher.
Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both
a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wrench, Katie, 1972-
Life story work with children who are fostered or adopted : creative ideas and activities /
Katie Wrench and Lesley Naylor.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84905-343-3 (alk. paper)
1. Adopted children--Services for. 2. Foster children--Services for. 3. Social work with
children. 4. Narrative therapy. 5. Psychic trauma in children--Treatment. I. Naylor, Lesley,
1964- II. Title.
HV873.W74 2013
362.73--dc23
2012041883
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84905 343 3
eISBN 978 0 85700 674 5
Contents
ACKNoWLedgemeNtS 7
Introduction 9
1. Building the Foundations for Life Story Work 17
the child 17
the care construct 18
the worker 19
2. Building a Sense of Safety for the Child 24
Creating a Working Agreement 27
Safe Place 29
the Hand of Safety 30
Initials 32
Body outline – Strengths and Resilience – Version 1 33
Body outline – early Warning Signs – Version 2 34
Relaxation exercises 35
3. emotional Literacy 39
mood Board or Collage 42
Feelings Charades 43
Shields 45
Body drawing 46
the Worry tree 47
the Bag of Feelings 48
4. Resilience and Self-esteem 50
magazine Self-Portrait 53
How I make myself Feel Better 54
Finding the Hero in the Child 55
What Can I Feel Proud of? 56
Like me/Not Like me? 58
Star on the door 59
5. Identity 60
Hand or Footprints 63
Life graph/Life map 64
draw Your Family 65
Sculpting 66
design an Island 69
Child-Friendly genograms/Family trees 70
6. Information Sharing and Integration 72
Life graph/Life map – Part 2 76
the Parenting game 79
moving Calendar 82
metaphorical Stories 84
Building Strong Walls 89
Secret Seal 92
7. Looking to the Future 93
Welcome mat 96
make a Wish 97
moving on 98
Healing Collage 99
the Future Self drawing 101
Candles 103
ReFeReNCeS 106
INdex 109
Acknowledgements
The development of this practice guide has been influenced by many
people and places. We have the pleasure of working as part of a strong,
creative team of social workers and therapists at the Therapeutic Social
Work Team in Leeds. We are appreciative of the support we have been
given by our team and managers and of the knowledge and experience
we have gained by working alongside them. As well as working
together, we also know how to laugh, spa and clothes swap together,
which we find always helps!
We must also express our pride in and thanks to all the children and
young people with whom we have shared a special life story journey. It
has been our privilege to walk that road with you and there is nothing
in this book that we haven’t first learned from one of you.
Taking the huge step from doing life story work with children
to writing the book about it comes down to one person, Stephen
Giles, who had the idea of creating a brief practice guide and didn’t
stop going on about it until the proposal was accepted. Thanks then
must also go to Jessica Kingsley Publishers and to our commissioning
editor, Stephen Jones, for being persuaded it was indeed a great idea.
For both of us, our families and friends have a provided tremendous
encouragement and belief along the way. From Lesley, thanks must go
to John for his support and for forgoing weekend walks on those rare
sunny days.
From Katie, thanks again must go to Stephen for taking our children,
Louis and Honor, on a variety of extended day trips to allow me to
sit and write in peace. Thanks too to David and Jean for believing I
7
8 Life Story Work With ChiLdren Who are foStered or adopted
could do a good job and an apology to Thea for not being the next
Jacqueline Wilson.
We couldn’t have come this far without the expert proofreading of
Alison Ferguson, always proficient with a ‘red pen’ and thoroughly
encouraging. Book club members come under the ‘thanks to the too
many to mention’!
So many thanks to everyone – to the ‘too many to mention’ who
have inspired and championed us along the way.