Life Story Work

Helping Young People Understand Their History & Process Trauma
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Trauma Processing

Part of the TRIBE Traum a Recovery Framework

Helping Young People Understand Their History & Process Trauma

Life Story Work

Are you supporting a care experienced young person?
We help parents, carers and professionals use Life Story Work to help young people process past trauma.

We can help with:
 Workshops: Free Workshops in the fundamentals of Life Story Work for carers, adoptive parents & professionals.
 Training Days: Life Story Work Training Days for foster carers, adoptive parents & social care practitioners.
 Life Story Direct Work Practitioner Training: Certified practitioner direct work training in the Life Story PPF Model of Practice.
 Life Story Practitioner Supervision: Supervision for certified Life Story Practitioners.
 Therapeutic Life Story Work: We provide Therapeutic Life Story Work by Qualified Therapists
Provided by therapists with years of therapeutic experience...

You May have seen us presenting on Life Story at

National Adoption Service Conference

We are

Laura & Kim

Therapists with a Mission! Laura Neal and Kim Matthews are qualified social workers, life story practitioners and therapists. They, and their team of therapists, have been providing Therapeutic Life Story work to hundreds of young people. They are passionate about getting Life Story Work right and using Life Story effectively to improve young people's wellbeing and to support them to process past trauma. From their experience of Life Story Work practice they have developed Life Story workshops and training courses for carers and professionals to help them develop their knowledge and skill base. Their therapeutic team also delivers Therapeutic Life Story Work to young people across South Wales. Laura and Kim are an a mission to help more young people receive effective Life Story Work.
Find Laura & Kim at therapeutic organisation The Behaviour Clinic where Life Story is a core part of the TRIBE model of Trauma Informed Care. 

What's New Since the Last Time You Were Here?

First Time Here?

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Foster Carer & Adopter Training in 2023

Practitioner Direct Work Training in 2023

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Instant Access to the FREE Workshop

In 2022 We Supported...

1,143

Professionals

476

Parents, Carers & Guardians

85

Young People

to understand life story!

Want to Know More?

Check out our therapies, courses and resources below....

Therapies, Training & Resources

Therapeutic Life Story Work

Helping young people with complex histories process trauma

Our team of qualified therapists have completed over 8000 hours of Life Story therapy between them. They are highly experienced at delivering Therapeutic Life Story Work to children and young people with complex and traumatic histories. 

Therapeutic Life Story Work not only helps the young person understand what happened in their past and their journey to where they are now, it helps them consider the impact their history had on their past and present and process trauma.

To find out more and apply for one of our Therapeutic Life Story Packages

Learn to Deliver Life Story Direct Work

Become a Life Story Champion


Our three day life story direct work course teaches practitioners to deliver the Life Story Past, Present, Future (PPF) Model of Life Story Direct Work. This is a ten session direct work model that can be used to support young people aged 4 years of age and older. The training will take you step by step through each life story session and teach you the core components of effective life story direct work. 
The training is CPD certified and following completion of the training practitioners can call themselves Life Story Champions. Post training supervision is also available for those who want to progress to a Level 2 practitioner.
 

Courses for Adoptive Parents, Foster Carers & Guardians

Help to support the young people you care for with Life Story

Our Life Story Identity & Belonging course is designed specifically for adoptive parents, foster carers and special guardians. Care experienced young people can often find understanding who they are (Identity) and where they fit within their family (belonging) a struggle as they don't live with the family they were born to. This one day course is specifically designed for parents and carers to learn how they can help their young people develop a sense of identity & belonging through Life Story they can do at home. The course runs in school hours and is online for easy carer access.

Free Starter Workshops

Two Available; One for Carers & One for Professionals


In 2021 Laura and Kim could see there was a need for easily accessible Life Story Work information to support both practitioners and carers to talk to young people about their life histories. They designed Life Story Workshops for professionals and carers and over 1500 individuals signed up to attend confirming carers and professionals really wanted to know more. 

The two workshops are now available on recording. They are two hours in length each and will provide answers to some of the core questions often asked about Life Story Work such as; what information to deliver, who should deliver information, when and how to talk about life story, and understand the possible impact of childhood trauma. Learn about how to respond when children ask you those difficult questions, who to ask for historical information and how to support children who are receiving Life Story Direct or Therapeutic Work.

If you haven't attended any of our training courses this is the place to start.

Case Studies & Feedback

How Therapeutic Life Story Work Helped Rowan

Age 9, living with his foster carer

When we met Rowan he had lived with his foster carer since he was six years old. Prior to this he lived with his mum and siblings. Rowan was the youngest of five children. During the time he had lived with his mum Rowan had not always had enough food, he had attended school sporadically, he had moved home 4 times due to his family being evicted, and he had witnessed domestic violence

In foster care Rowan worried about a lot of things, he worried he would have to move again, that his siblings weren't safe (they did not live with him in foster care), that there would be fighting in his foster home, and that there would not always be food there for him. Even though he had lived with his foster care for three years and there had never been fighting and there had always been food he worried about these things every day. Because Rowan was always worried he would fidget, he couldn't concentrate, he sometimes did odd things like hoarding food, or (when he was really worried) picking the wallpaper and eating it.

Therapeutic Life Story Work first of all helped Rowan identify all of the worries he had and talk to his therapist about them. His therapist then made a life story plan that over the course of the therapy would help Rowan identify why he may be worried (because of past experiences), why things were different where he lived now, how he could be certain he was safe, why he did not need to worry about his siblings and what to do when he did worry. Rowan attended therapy every fortnight for nine months. By the end of the therapy Rowan understood how his past was contributing to his worries and why he could be confident he did not have to have these worries in his foster placement. Rowan fidgeted less, he could concentrate more and when he was worried (which was far less often) he talked to his carer. He stopped eating wallpaper and he stopped hoarding food. Rowan reported "I learnt that I had a difficult time but I am glad I learnt about this because it helped me see how things are different now. I feel happier and I don't worry about everything all of the time".
Please note that for confidentiality purposes the photo's and names of young people have been changed.

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