Life Story Work
Helping Young People Understand Their History & Process Trauma
Trauma Processing
Achieve A Certificate in Life Story Coaching (10 CPD Credits)
What Is Life Story Coaching (LSC)?
Life Story coaching is the third most intensive form of Life Story Work from The Five Approaches to Life Story Work. It is all about explaining how the ‘coach’ can take an active role in the young persons Life Story Work. In addition to creating a welcoming space, they also utilise a safe and open relationship with the young person to share, challenge and explore life story information, raising their curiosity and suggesting alternate perspectives. In addition, a coach may be able to undertake short, discrete pieces of Life Story Work.
Life Story Coaches will be playing a regular, active and meaningful role in a young person’s life such as a foster carer, adoptive parent, guardian, teacher, support worker or long term Social Worker and can use their contact and connection with the young person to healthily challenge the young persons accounts and support their processing of events.
The core aim of Life Story Coaching is to provide an emotionally supportive space where a young person can gain and discuss information, reflect, question, process information, tolerate challenge and feel supported.
Key components of Life Story Coaching:
- Collects factual information and mementos.
- Listens.
- Questions perspectives and accounts.
- Hypothesises or wonders with the young person about their perceptions.
- Reflects with the young person and uses reflective functioning.
- Supports the young person to process information or resolve internal conflicts.
- Facilitates adaptive ongoing relationships with family past and present.
- Helps the young person bring the past and the present together.
- Provides some information.
- May provide discrete pieces of direct work.
Check Out the BJSW Published Paper: What is Life Story Work? How defining approaches can bring clarity to research, training & practice (Neal & Matthews, 2024)
When is Life Story Coaching Running?
- Dates:
February 4th & 5th, 2025 - Time: 10.00 am to 2.30 pm
- Location: Online
- Dates: April 29th and 30th, 2025
- Time: 10.00 am to 2.30 pm
- Location: Online
- Dates: June 24th and 25th, 2025
- Time: 10.00 am to 2.30 pm
- Location: Online
- Dates: September 15th and 16th, 2025
- Time: 10.00 am to 2.30 pm
- Location: Online
When you sign up to the Life Story Coaching Certificate, choose the date and venue that best suit you.
Why train in Life Story Coaching?
The need for effective Life Story Work is increasingly being recognised as essential for care experienced young people to support their wellbeing, mental health and integration into the family with which they live. Policy and practice guidance states that it should be integrated into care planning, carer training and practice. Many organisations have however found it difficult to effectively integrate Life Story Work into practice and support skill and confidence in its delivery. Life Story Coaching provides a holistic approach where carers, adoptive parents and practitioners receive joined up training and support that can help organisations achieve effective Life Story Work for young people and help boost confidence to integrate Life Story Work into day-to-day practice.
This course is CPD registered and includes 10 CPD credits.
The five approaches from least to most intensive
What does the training include?
Life Story Coaching Training
- What: A two day training programme on the core elements of Life Story Work and how to use the Life Story Coaching approach.
- Facilitators: Run by Laura Neal or Kim Matthews, Life Story Therapists and authors of the BJSW published What Is Life Story Work paper.
- Where: We have courses running throughout the year online, or you can ask us to come to your location
- When: There are five dates available in 2025. When you sign up you have a choice to select the date that suits you. The course runs from 10.00 am - 2:30pm.
- Who Is The Training For: Foster carers, special guardians, adoptive parents, practitioners and those who play a key role in a care experienced young persons life, who want to learn more about putting life story work into practice, supporting more therapeutic intervention the child may be receiving and specifically learn Life Story Coaching skills.
- Why Attend: This course not only provides core life story coaching skills it includes core information needed to understand the foundations of the approaches to Life Story Work, including how to know when coaching can work alongside those more intense interventions, and when to seek this support.
- Can Questions Be Asked: Yes, this course is an interactive course where the trainers take time to integrate views, opinions, your real life examples and answer specific questions.
- Certificate: In Life Story Coaching, including 10 CPD credits.
What Does The Training Cover?
The two-day life story coaching course can be booked individually or as a group for up to 30 delegates. This course is tailored to either foster carers, adoptive parents or practitioners needs at an organisations request. Over the two days delegates will learn:
- Why life story work is important,
- Core elements to the work,
- How to integrate life story into day-to-day practice,
- How to coach young people through difficult past and present life events.
Role play and examples of discrete direct work sessions are provided. Core outcomes are for delegates to leave with actionable Life Story Work Skills and increased confidence. Life Story Coaching can run alongside a practitioner completing Life Story Direct Work with a young person, with the coach (typically carer) providing in home emotional and reflective support.
Sign Up For Life Story Coaching
Sign Up
