Therapeutic Life Story Work

[crispandcheesesandwichplease]

Does anyone have an adopted child who has undertaken therapeutic lifestory work? I'm thinking that our AC might benefit from it and our adoption support worker is willing to make an application to the Adoption Support Fund to cover the costs.

[Kr1stina]

I haven't, sorry. But make sure it's done by a specialist adoption therapist from an appropriate agency and not my some random social worker who has been on a half day in service course

[crispandcheesesandwichplease]

Thanks Kr1stina. We will be very careful about who we pick. We've already had art therapy through the ASF so know a thing or two about the quality of some of the practitioners out there!

[Kr1stina]

Ah, you know the score then. Was the art therapy helpful ?

[crispandcheesesandwichplease]

Yes we've just started the 2nd round of art therapy. My AD has found it useful to have another adult to talk with about very personal stuff.

[user1474699476]

We've adopted an older sibling pair (11 & 9) and they have a play therapist who has done some age appropriate life story work with them (just before our Adoption Hearing). She was brilliant and really helped the kids understand why they couldn't be with their family and got them to open up about memories that they'd kept locked away and they then talked us through all the bits they could remember. Really helpful for us and our 2.

[crispandcheesesandwichplease]

Thanks user. Do you know if the therapist went through all the old social work files before starting the work?

[user1474699476]

Hi crisps, our therapist has been working with our kids for a few years now and they have a good relationship with her and she knows the background to the case. Not sure if it would've been as successful if a new therapist/stranger tried to talk through the same issues.

[crispandcheesesandwichplease]

Thanks user. We currently have a therapist also so might be a good idea for her to do it. I was under the impression, from looking on t'internet , that the work is generally done by social workers.

[Kewcumber]

We've had an offer of this but both practitioners who have experience locally have withdrawn - one becuase he's too busy and one for heatlth reasons. So not much help here. I would only go with someone who has experience personally rather than a general therapist.

[crispandcheesesandwichplease]

Yes I agree Kewcumber