Setting Up Therapeutic Storywriting Groups

Day 2

Presented by Dr Trisha Waters

Therapeutic Storywriting: Day 2

9.30 -10.50: Mindfulness, check-in & feedback from groups Feelings ladder

Introduction to subpersonalities

10.50-11.10: Coffee

11.10-1.00: Working with subpersonalities in story writing

1.00 -1.45: Lunch

1.45-3.30: Mindfulness exercise

Containment of anxiety to facilitate thinking Active Listening and reflection of children’s stories

Discussion of points arising from groups

Book references for Day 2

Waters, T (2004) Therapeutic Storywriting, London: David Fulton

Chapter 3: Subpersonalities and a Model of the Self

Chapter 7: Receiving the Child’s Story

Mindfulness Tuning

Check-in and feedback from groups

NameFeelings How is your group going?

Feelings ladder

Order feelings from ‘most comfortable’ to ‘least comfortable’

Discuss as a group the order

Avoid judgemental references such as ‘positive’/‘negative’, good/bad

What are Subpersonalities?

Different discrete aspects of the self

Often have different needs and compete for attention

Each has a unique set of attributes

Unconscious subpersonalities cause problems

Working with Subpersonalities

Exercise:Who am I?

Group is asked 10 questions Work in pairs Partner asks: “How did your response to the question change?” Choose one subpersonality from your list and your partner asks:-

“What is your name?”

“When are you present?”

“What is your job?”

“What is your body posture”

“How do you feel?”

“What do you want?”

“What else do you need?” Reverse roles Repeat choosing a different subpersonality

Case Study: Nathaniel

Exercise: Recognition and identification with a subpersonality

Read through your child’s story

Find a character that may represent a significant subpersonality

Write down 5 or 6 open questions you might ask the child about this character?

From week 2 onwards

Place new feeling words on the ladder

Print out copies of one pupil’s story from last week and pupil reads it aloud to group.

Each week teacher brings a new story opener

Children choose to :-

take up the teacher’s suggestion or

carry on with their current story

Exercise: Leading Mindfulness

Guide your partner to focus on:sound in and outside the roomsensation in body beginning with feetemotions experienced todaya word that best describes how they’re feeling

at the moment

Partner gives feedback on :Tone of voicePaceEmotional safety

Mindfulness Video

Video made by Trisha Waters for YoungMinds showing the Mindfulness exercise developed for Therapeutic Storywriting groups being used with the whole school

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGobuBXCHBM

Bion: Containment of anxiety

Anxiety contained for thinking to take place

Containment by significant other

Empathic verbal reflection

BESDs and Speech &Language Difficulties

Active Listening is …

Focused listeningNon judgementalUse of reflection, paraphrasing and

summarisingChecking understandingUse of non-verbal signs e.g. nodding

Active listening is not …

Having a conversation

Giving advice

Problem-solving

Saying ‘Oh I know exactly how you feel, that happened to me’ – even if it has!

Reflection and paraphrasing

Reflection repeats what has actually been said

Paraphrasing restates using your own words

Used for both content and feelings

©2014 Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting Ltd.

Content vs Feelings

Content is the actual topic that the person is describing – reflection/paraphrase is useful if there is a a lack of coherence

Feelings, both those explicitly or implicitly communicated, are acknowledged using reflection or paraphrase

Summarising

Draws together main points in a few statements

Helps clarify what has been said

©2014 Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting Ltd.

Active listening exercise

Work in 3s –speaker, listener & observer Speaker talks about what they did yesterday. For the first 2 min listener reflects and mirrors the content. For the second 4 min listener reflects the feelings expressed.

Begin response with one of the following:

I wonder if you are feeling…

I imagine you feel…

You seem to be feeling…

Perhaps you might be feeling...

It sounds as if you are feeling… Summarise in no more than 2 sentences what has been said in

the last 6 min Observer keeps time and facilitates brief feedback from listener,

speaker and then themselves at end of session

Active Listening in Story

Reflecting/paraphrasing story theme or plot

Reflection of feelings of characters

Summarising story so far

Reflection of Story Events

Shows attention has been given to the story

Use of paraphrase rather than repetition

Use of teacher’s extending language

Express main points in clearer manner to help child see how plot is developing

Reflection of Feelings of Characters

Extends emotional vocabulary

Encourages child to focus on the emotional aspect of the character

Reflection needs to leave the final statement to the child e.g

I wonder if she is feeling…

I imagine he feels…

He seems to be feeling…

Perhaps he might be feeling...

It sounds as if she might be feeling…

Summarising

Draws together main points in a few statements

Can be used for part or all of the story

Helps child link with last session

Helps clarify the plot for the child

Active Listening: Reflection of story content and feelings

Work in pairs on a pupil’s story Read story through twice pausing after every couple of

sentences First use paraphrase to reflect content of story – focus

on events Secondly, reflect feelings using the tentative openings Summarise story in no more than 2 sentences

Reverse roles using another pupil’s story

Exercise: Written Emotional Literacy Comments

Using your child’s story write down:

1 open question about a significant subpersonality character

1 reflective (active listening) statement that focuses on the feelings of this character

Encouraging constructive feedback from the group

Self esteem = success (measured against peers)

aspiration

Encourage pupils to say one thing they liked and possibly one thing that could be improved

Plenary: Receiving the Child’s Story

Open questions to identify a significant subpersonality character

Reflective ‘active listening’ statements

Encouraging constructive criticism from the group

Giving copies of one pupil’s story to the group for extra discussion each week

Typing out stories & making final published book

Next Session

Identifying story themes Written emotional literacy comments Metaphor set in fantasy or external reality Addressing the ending Assessment and referring on Structure of a therapeutic story

N.B. Bring along children’s stories to work with

Further information, research & resources

Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting:www.TherapeuticStorywriting.com

Online training manual:

www.TherapeuticStorywritingTraining.co.uk