The way of the game and the story – a narrative therapy of the child trauma

Trauma is a word which is like a bogeyman, especially when it comes to a child trauma. Workers are often afraid to talk to children about their traumas and they consider such dialogues challenging. This workshop is a place where we will share our experience from a long-term work with traumatised children and the tools which help us in our work. The narrative therapeutic approach works with the story of the client, with curiosity about their uniqueness, with faith in the possibilities and capabilities of the client. The objective of the narrative therapy is retelling the original problematic/traumatic story into another one, with another meaning, which does not threaten the client any more or it is even healing. The narrative approach offers a way of not getting ²stuck“ by doing a mere description of the trauma/problem, but one in which we get to what matters most – the child itself and their personal resources. We will demonstrate how to work by play, use stories and metaphors, how to be fair, respectful and curious. The workshop is a tasting of the narrative therapy and creative methods which we use in our work with children.