About TLSW
Therapeutic Life Story Work
Therapeutic life story work is an intervention that helps children/young people/adults to develop their own story about who they are, through exploring and understanding their life experiences and linking their feelings and behaviours to these experiences.
​
TLSW helps children/young people/adults to develop a more positive identity and to manage their (difficult) feelings. When working with children and young people it provides role modelling through the relationship and improves relationships with their carers.
​
The Therapeutic Life Story model was developed by Richard Rose in Britain in 2005, for working with children who were not able to live with their birth parents.
Children who don't live with their parents often don't know their own Life Story. This might be because they have:
​
-
Limited access to family stories
-
Experienced multiple placements
-
Caseworkers assume someone else told them
-
Carers and workers worry about what can be shared with children – for fear of retraumatising them
“The very fact that adults hesitate to share information about the past with children implies to the child that their past is so bad that they won't be able to cope with it. Whatever the past was – the child lived through it and survived and so can live with the truth. ​
The truth can be presented in a harmful way that lowers the child's self esteem or in a way that helps the child to understand and accept their past and thus raises their self esteem.”
​
Vera Fahlberg in Rose and Philpot (2005)
Without knowing the whole story, children will fill in the gaps in their knowledge by creating their own stories about what happened and why. Children often blame themselves for what happens in their life, and might feel grief, anger and shame.
​
-
TLSW assists young people in exploring and understanding their past and current behaviours and linking to their future.
-
Strengthening the relationship with their carer.
-
The healing process of the integration, making sense of their experience/ life story.
-
Contributing to their development of identify and sense of self.
-
Therapeutic Life Story Work provides an opportunity for young people/children/people to engage directly with a practitioner in working through their life story work, allowing for greater integration and understanding.
-
The model includes a third person, preferably the child's carer or family member who can support the child or young person through any difficult thoughts and worries that may come up. Being playful and curious are essential qualities of this work.
-
Therapeutic life Story work is also done in other settings including with adults, adoptive families, schools and within the criminal justice system.
-
The Rose Model of Therapeutic Life Story Work has been subjected to independent research and validated as an evidenced based narrative model that has excellent outcomes for traumatised children, young people and adults.
“The value and power of the life story approach to reconstructing and reconnecting a child using personal narrative cannot be underestimated”
Bruce Perry (2012) Life Story Therapy with Traumatized Children, Foreword.
Current Research
Soon to be published:
Literature review by Soula A. Kontomichalos-Eyre et al.
Life story work for children and youth in out of home care: A systematic review and synthesis of qualitative studies
Dr James Lucas presents the study findings at the TLSWa symposium in Naarm/Melbourne in 2023.