Practice tips for undertaking life story work

What is life story work?

Life story work is a “biographical narrative approach used within health and social care settings that offers individuals an opportunity to talk and think about their lived experiences” (Kontomichalos-Eyre, Lake & McGillivray, 2003).

Life story work is most commonly associated with adoption. It is a requirement set out in law and statutory guidance for adopted children to have life story books, and, historically, research has focused on its role in adoption. However, life story work can also make a significant positive difference to the lives of children in care.

One reason is that addressing the need for children to feel safe is an essential goal of the work. Research by Staines and Selwyn (2020) indicated that many children expressed confusion about why they were in care, resulting in an uneasy feeling and desire for more information.

When children feel ‘unsettled’

Children may exhibit behaviours because of feeling ‘unsettled’, and often professionals, parents or carers may assume these are a result of ‘something wrong’ with the child.

For example, children may appear irritable, tense, restless or unable to sit still, or they may lack concentration and be easily distracted.

Practitioners should consider behaviours exhibited by children in care in the context of separation, loss, developmental trauma and/or severe adversity rather than focusing on them as symptoms of various diagnoses.

A collective responsibility

An important approach to life story work is to ensure there is sufficient planning. This is not only down to the social work practitioner; you should involve practitioners within the wider network who are supporting the child.

It is a collective responsibility for everyone involved in the young person’s life. Consider how you can best utilise the skills of everyone involved.

Reaching out to birth families is helpful as well, as family networking and conferencing can help to answer questions the child may have, such as, ‘What hospital was I born in?’, or, ‘How did I weigh?’.

Having the answers to these questions will help the child understand their past and will help to form their identity.

It is important to use spaces that are already available to you such as reflective spaces, supervision and team meetings. First-hand information from practice that is shared during group supervision, for example, can be an effective way of receiving peer support and can help with planning and sharing of resources.

Involving carers

Encourage caregivers to record the memories and moments of the child’s time in their care.

This helps ensure that children will not leave their care with limited memories of the parts of their lives while being in care and helps the child understand their experiences.

Positive therapeutic relationship

Life story work is a relational therapeutic intervention that helps children to heal. Studies have shown that absence of life story work can adversely affect a child’s identify formation.

Identity theory in general explains that everyone finds themselves through relationships, experiences and memories; and if this is not possible then people often feel ‘lost’ and uneasy. This is often linked to low self-esteem and anxiety, and what is termed ‘external locus of control’.

If children and young people have access to life story work, then this helps to build a good sense of their identity, which adds to their internal locus of control and a more positive mindset.

Increasing trust and self-esteem

This is because life story work can help ‘fill gaps’ that children and young people may have about past experiences, which can help children to feel more optimistic about the future and increase self-esteem.

It can help to form connections with others as well, increasing the trust children have in others and can improve placement stability by reducing relational conflict within placements.

Practitioners can try to make links and connections between the child’s experiences and the current anxiety, anger or restlessness they may be experiencing. This helps to increase the child’s resilience, by highlighting their capacity to grow and change despite experiencing negative events.

Although information about the child’s past can cause negative emotions, it is better to help the child share and understand their past to make sense of what they experienced and connect parts of their lives.

If you have a Community Care Inform Children licence, log on to access the recorded webinar and learn more about undertaking life story work.

References

Kontomichalos-Eyre, S, Lake, A & McGillivray, J (2023)
‘Life story work for children and youth in out of home care: a systematic review and synthesis if qualitative studies’
Children and Youth Services Review, 144, Elsevier

Staines J & Selwyn J (2020)
‘”I wish someone would explain why I am in care”: The impact of children and young people’s lack of understanding of why they are in out-of-home care on their well-being and felt security’
Child & Family Social Work, 25 (1), Wiley