What’s your story? Storytelling is how we make meaning and find purpose in our own experience

Direct care staff are often the people that spend most time with kids in care and because of this are also often the very people that kids feel safest to share their experiences. These discussions and the intensity of emotion inherent within them can be difficult for staff to hold because the fear of saying the wrong thing can be overwhelming.

It is important to remember that kids have developed a story in their minds of the abuse and neglect they endured because stories are central to human cognition and communication. We engage with others through stories, and create meaning and purpose in our lives through the manner in which these stories are told. But what happens when the stories that we hold as true are in fact not entirely accurate? What happens when kids who endured horrible acts of abuse have in the process created a story where in their plot, they are the villain, they are to blame? In this session you will be introduced to the narrative therapy technique of re-authoring, a technique that will help you explore the stories that kids have created, the meaning they attached to significant life experiences and equip you with ways to alter existing stories to create completely new ones.