1. Setting Up Therapeutic Storywriting Groups
Day 2
Presented by
Resources: Laptop; projector; screeen; speakers; Flipchart + pens; bells; blank Feelings Ladder + blutak; timer; Therapeutic Storywriting published book
Room layout: tables and chairs arranged in horseshoe format
Internet connection essential: Ensure you have 2 windows open i.e. ppt + online training manual. You will regularly need to switch between these.
Handouts: PPt handout (3 slides/page); 2 slips white paper for feeling words;
Trainer’s pre-reading: Chaps 3 & 7
For notes on timings , see final slide.
5 minutes
Day 2 is usually run 3 weeks after day 1.
Recap on Day 1: all interpretation stays in the metaphor, it is an education intervention that aims to bring psychological mindfulness to the teaching process, the process supports emotional containment in order to facilitate thinking about the educational task, supports speech and language, literacy and emotional literacy skills.
Check that everyone has accessed the website.

2. Therapeutic Storywriting: Day 2
: Mindfulness, check-in & feedback from groups Feelings ladder Introduction to subpersonalities
: Coffee
: Working with subpersonalities in story writing
: Lunch
: Mindfulness exercise
Containment of anxiety to facilitate thinking Active Listening and reflection of children’s stories
Discussion of points arising from groups
3 min
Go through outline for the day– focus today is on how we receive the children’s stories. We will explore two particular ways in which we can do this:-
Asking open questions about a significant subpersonality character (morning)
Providing reflective active listening statements about this character (afternoon)
We will be using pupils’ stories in the exercises to hone these skills.
We will also look at the Feelings Ladder and practise leading the Mindfulness exercise after lunch.

3. 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
2 min
Remind delegates that most up-to-date resources are on the website.

4. Mindfulness Tuning 10 min Repeat MINDFULNESS ACTIVITY given on day 1.
Turn off slide or move back to opening slide. Ask delegates to close their eyes.
Reflection on the Mindfulness activity will take place as each delegate checks in.
Some points that may come up…
Important that teacher keeps their eyes open.
Pupils can put their heads on table if they wish.

5. Check-in and feedback from groups
Name
Feelings
How is your group going?
minutes (will vary depending on nature of delegate group)
Trainer models by first sharing her feelings and then move round the group.
This feedback on school groups is a key part of the course supervision.
Check with each delegate and make notes on:
Year group and number of pupils in group
What did they learn from the individual pupil pre- evaluations? How did they feel about how the group went?
How was the Mindfulness?
Keep your notes for reference on day 3
Collecting background information on pupils and knowing the children is important: Just as much as is available through the Senco and their files – do not need to have intimate details. They should know:
behaviour of child in class;
Literacy levels
How they get on with peers
How they get on with adults
Any significant information shared with the school about home life

6. 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
10 min
Lay out a blank feelings ladder on a table or pin to a wall if possible.
Give each delegate a small bit of blutak and ask them to place their feeling words on a scale of Most Comfortable (top) to Least Comfortable (bottom)
Encourage delegates to discuss the order of feeling words.
Most/least comfortable links with the sensation part of Mindfulness exercise
Parallel process to what we ask pupils to do in week 2 of the TSW groups.
Some points that may come up…
Keep in single word ladder
Put same words on top of each other
Ensure all pupils’ words are correctly spelt – write out for them to copy on new slip if misspelt
Pupils can read out the list of words at beginning of session
Don’t pluck words from published posters etc but use words that come directly from pupils
Teacher ensures she provides some new words each week
Extend the ladder each week

7. 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
5 min
You will need to have a personal example of two contrasting subpersonalities.
Based on work of Robert Assagioli, who developed Psychosynthesis.
This is a theoretical model of the Self, not the truth, but a useful framework for thinking/ reflecting about children’s stories.
What is meant by the self? A question asked by many philosophers/ thinkers/ including psychologists, over time.
The idea of subpersonalities reflects discrete aspects of ourselves. We talk about “I” but different parts of myself, i.e. subpersonalities, come to the fore with different people in different places at different times.
Different situations call up different parts of ourselves. Different subpersonalities have different needs and wants and can compete for attention –refer to your personal example.
Some subpersonalities may be outside our awareness, i.e. unconscious, or may we may not want to acknowledge them. When we don’t acknowledge a part of ourselves there is a potential for problems. These are the parts of ourselves that can slip out when we don’t mean them too. This is what happens when children seemingly ‘kick off for no reason’.
Aristotle “Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.’
It is human to feel all the emotions, it’s how we respond to those emotions that counts. By working with children to identify subpersonalities through story, we can bring different emotions into awareness and help them to reflect on rather than react to those feelings .

8. Working with Subpersonalities
The Self as Psychological Conductor has qualities of
Awareness
Will
Every subpersonality serves a purpose
Working with subpersonalities through:-
Recognition
Identifying with
Integration
Disidentification
15 min (including 10 questions ‘Who Are You?’)
In this model the core self is likened to a musical conductor, who knows intimately what each instrument can do and uses her Will to bring them in or quieten them as required. The two core qualities of this core self are Awareness and Will (I feel angry – awareness, shall I say something or not – will).
Assagioli has a 4 step approach. In TSW groups it is the first two that we work with i.e. naming and identifying with a significant subpersonality.
A subpersonality is ‘significant’ for a child if it relates to emotions that are causing difficulties for the child or those around them.

9. Exercise: Identifying Subpersonalities
10 questions
Task: Ask the 10 questions ‘Who are you?’ before putting up the next slide.
Make clear this an exercise purely for the training, for adults to understand the theory not something for them to ask children to do
Give guidance that answer is just one word or short phrase – give an example from your own subpersonalities e.g. I am a Tree Gazer, I am a Mother.
Possible responses will include, father/ mother, daughter/ son, friend. Work, colleague, helper, supporter, as well as personal/ individual responses such as TREE GAZER, MRS SORT-THE-WORLD-OUTON-HER OWN etc…
Write these 10 answers to questions yourself –this will help the timing. Look around group to see that everyone has had enough time.

10. Exercise: Who Are You? Group uses their answers to the 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
25 min
First model doing the exercise using one of your personal subpersonalities- take up the posture and express the feeling.
NB: As this exercise touches on personal issues make a confidentiality agreement in the group:
‘Can we make a confidentiality agreement that anything discussed in the exercises today stays in the room.’
Add ‘Can you please take responsibility for how much you wish to share in the exercise.’
Then delegates work in pairs. 5 min per subpersonality – ring bell every 5 min to keep group together.
Back in whole group ask the open question ‘How was that exercise?’
Trainer takes a partner if it is an odd number in group – watching time
Reiterate ‘This is not an exercise to do with pupils but an exercise to deepen our understanding of the theory. ‘

11. Case Study: Nathaniel
Put up this blank slide while you read through 1st story. Move to picture when group has given their opinion on Significant Subpersonality character.

12. Nathaniel’s Picture 18 min
Read through in book in advance or use own example.
Background knowledge only needs to be what is in SEN file or shared with school.
We are looking for the emotional energy in the story rather than the story structure and resolving all strands in story.
Read story to group. Focus on the language used helps to focus on the parrot e.g. ‘Why did the parrot eat the roast?’ not ‘What did Mum think about the parrot eating the roast?’
Keep questions concrete rather than philosophical – e.g. how, what, where, when…
Showing picture to accompany story allows delegates to reflect on how the image can deepen the metaphor.

13. Drawing to deepen the metaphor
Ensure pupils have an A4 sheet of plain paper for their illustration
Provide colour pencils but not rubbers and rulers
What do you notice about the picture?
Which character is central?
Where is the energy focused?
How does the pupil use the drawing space?
How are they using colour?
2 min
Link with picture from previous case study and identification of significant subpersonality – i.e. what is dominant in the picture?

14. Written comments 1: Open questions focusing on a significant subpersonality character
Read through your child’s story and look at their picture
Find a character that may represent a significant subpersonality
Write down 4 or 5 open questions you might ask the child about this character?
10-15 min for paired work + 30 min for group sharing
This is an important part of the training day. First in-depth reflection on the pupils’ stories.
Participants work in pairs to repeat exercise with each person taking one of their pupils’ stories. They agree which character is the significant subpersonality character and prepare questions they could ask to help the child get inside the skin of that character.
Hear one story from each pair and encourage feedback from the group. Include some modeled responses and clarify any misunderstandings. Make sure you have enough time for this group sharing.
LUNCH BREAK

15. 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
2 min
This is mainly a review from week 1. Focus on fact that one child’s story, typed out with correct Spag, is focused on each week as delegates often seem to forget this. Refer to the website.

16. Exercise: Leading Mindfulness
Guide your partner to focus on:
sound in and outside the room
sensation in body beginning with feet
emotions experienced today
a word that best describes how they’re feeling at the moment
Partner gives feedback on :
Tone of voice
Pace
Emotional safety
15 min
Discuss the Mindfulness exercise (5 min):
Order of going around the body
Focus on: feet on floor, sensation in feet, tingling in hands, sensation in muscles behind eyes,
Move from body feelings to emotional feelings with phrase ‘ I now invite you to take your awareness away from your body to the emotions you have experienced so far today.
Task (10 min)
Ask delegates to find a quiet part of the room and also to speak just so their partner can hear them so they do not disturb others.
Ring bell for first person. Indicate when 5 min is up and time to swap.
Encourage feedback to large group with question ‘ How was that exercise?’

17. Bion: Containment of anxiety
Anxiety contained for thinking to take place
Containment by significant other
Empathic verbal reflection
Social, Emotional & Mental Health Difficulties correlation with Speech & Language Difficulties
10 min
If we panic, we can’t think straight –anxiety needs to be contained to allow the thinking process to take place. Anxiety containment for a young child is done by their primary carer.
Bion was a Psychotherapist who developed a theory of thinking, following research of the mother-infant dyad. Found mothers of infants who are developing language, empathetically pick up their child’s anxiety as if it were their own, think about it and give continual verbal reflection, so that next time a child experiences this anxiety they are able to verbalise their feelings. This is known as empathic verbal reflection (active listening is equivalent).
Not all children have the language ability to carry this out (correlation between SAL & BESD). Therefore in TSW we need to verbally reflect on children’s stories and reflect empathetically on the feelings of the character – this gives the children the language to describe feelings , e.g. for a child who does not have the language of sadness we may provide this for them (keeping in this instance within the story metaphor) e.g. it sounds like that character has had a really tough time, I imagine he feels very sad that … over time the child learns to internalise and use this language for themselves.

18. Active Listening is … Focused listening Non judgemental
Use of reflection, paraphrasing and summarising
Checking understanding
Use of non-verbal signs e.g. nodding
2 min
Ask who has done active listening before – make a note so you can pair up these with folk with no experience in the exercises.
Say this can seem deceptively simple but counsellors spend 3 years developing this skill
Active listening now commonly used in the helping professions and in management training

19. 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!
2 min
Easier to say what Active listening is not

20. Reflection and paraphrasing
Reflection repeats what has actually been said
Paraphrasing restates using your own words
Used for both content and feelings
2 min
Like holding up a mirror.
Reflecting back is helping the other person to hear what they have said. It helps them think about what they have said- rather like looking in the mirror.
©2014 Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting Ltd.

21. Content vs Feelings
Content is the actual topic that the person is describing – reflection/paraphrase is useful if there is a lack of coherence
Feelings, both those explicitly or implicitly communicated, are acknowledged using reflection or paraphrase
2 min

22. ©2014 Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting Ltd.
Summarising
Draws together main points in a few statements
Helps clarify what has been said
2 min
Only short – not as long as original.
©2014 Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting Ltd.

23. 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 tentative openers:
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
25 min
Active listening is not conversation/advice/problem solving/’know how you feel’ – it is a reflection/mirror. Active listening allows a child to develop a sense of self through mirroring by a significant other.
This exercise is different to the open questions exercise this morning. Here we are reflecting back what is actually expressed. This is not a natural response but you can become more fluent in it.
Trainer models what to do with one of the delegates. Provide 2 or 3 reflections for content and then feelings. Make sure you use a tentative opener.
The speaker talks about what they did the day before. They need to leave gaps so that the listener can make reflective statements on what the speaker has said. The listener can paraphrase, doesn’t have to reflect verbatim. After a couple of minutes of this, the listener switches to providing reflective statements about the feelings expressed by the speaker, using the tentative statement openers given on the slide. Try to avoid ‘you must be feeling…’
The role of the observer is to keep track of time and to ensure the dialogue between the speaker and listener doesn’t become a chat or conversation. Finally the listener summarises some of the key points of what the speaker has said in a few sentences.
Ring bell after each 2, 4 min, allow 2 min for summary and feedback before change over.
Repeat activity so that each person has experienced each role.
Come back to large group and ask ‘How was that activity?’

24. Active Listening in Story
Reflecting/paraphrasing story theme or plot
Reflection of feelings of characters
Summarising story so far
1 min
Active listening is an important part of receiving the child’s story. The child feels their story has been heard, this is containing. It also allows children to feel valued, that their story is important and this builds a positive self image.

25. 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
1 min
This can help to provide emotional containment for the child. It shows you have really listened to their stories and ideas.

26. 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
10 min
Trainer models the ex to the group by first asking a delegate to read aloud a pupil story twice.
Don’t need to have background to pupil as the exercise just works with what is on the page.
Use tentative openings - discourage use of ‘you must be feeling’.

27. Tentative Openers
Use one of the following to reflect the feelings of characters in pupils’ stories:
I imagine he/she feels…
He/she seems to be feeling…
Perhaps he/she might be feeling...
It sounds as if he/she is feeling…
Put up this slide once the exercise in previous slide has been explained and modelled.

28. Written Comments 2: Reflective (active listening) statements
Using your child’s story write down 3 or 4 reflective (active listening) statements that focus on the feelings of the central character making sure to begin with one of the following tentative openers:
I imagine he/she feels…
He/She seems to be feeling…
Perhaps he/she might be feeling...
It sounds as if he/she is feeling…
10 min
Share comments in large group.
In addition to being written in books, these comments can be used in verbal reflections when pupils first read stories and/or again when we hand the books back the following week.
Wriiten comments 1 & 2 will be revisited on Day 3.

29. 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
4 min
If short of time, skip the equation and just mention importance of encouraging peer feedback.
James, 19th Century Psychologist – first to define self esteem. Self esteem is measured against what others are doing e.g. peers’ writing. Do the pupils’ have an aspiration to be a writer (ref pre-evaluation question).
Important to invite peer’s comments on the stories. Encourage this before teacher comes in with her reflection.

30. 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
2 min
Check everyone is clear about providing copies of one pupil’s typed story from the previous week to be read to the whole group before discussion of the new story opener.
Making the final published book will be addressed in day 3.

31. Exercise: Story Openers revision
Write a story opening using an animal character which names a feeling that may be uncomfortable for pupils in your group:
Name the animal character
Describe the setting
Name the feeling
NB Do not say why the character is feeling like this.
Use no more than two sentences.
This is an optional additional slide if you feel the group needs further practice with the story opener. The exercise will provide an opener for their next session.

32. 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 children’s stories to work with
2 min
Remind delegates of date of next session. Mention we will be focusing on the emerging themes in the stories.

33. Final Comment One word or short phrase to describe how
you are feeling at the end of Day 2
2 min
Quick final round to complete the session

34. Further information, research & resources
Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting:
Online training manual:
2 min
Add your contact to this slide
Finish by asking each person to use one word or short phrase to say how they are feeling at the end of today’s session.
Note on timing
Timings need to be flexible to respond to needs of group and maintain flow in the learning process.
Timings on slides are indicative only.
Training Day is 6 hours: 1hr breaks + 4 hr 10 min allocated to slides + 50 min contingency for questions, task extension etc
Total allocated slide time: 250 min