How Can Story Telling Help Us Detect Trauma in Children?

We often forget that children do not think like adults.

We believe they are mature enough to express themselves and communicate a problem, where in fact they are trying to understand it themselves first before being able to share it with us. 

Finding ways to make this easier for them could be handy and a solution to many problem. 

Storytelling for example could be a useful tool.

Michelle Laverack in her article 'Promoting Children's Mental Health Through Storytelling' states that children often use metaphor and imagination in order to play. As a result expressing themselves through means such us storytelling could be an easy way to discover and communicate their needs. A therapeutic story would use characters the children can relate to. Also, while reading or listening to the story, children can connect, relate and explore their inner world. 

In addition, asking children to imagine a narrative or create a story about an imaginative character can also state a lot about a child’s psychological state. Not only from the content of the story but also through the way the child will read or narrate it out loud.   

Courtney Ackerman in her article 19 Narrative Therapy Techniques, Inventions and Worksheets states that this type of therapy (narrative therapy) aims at separating the individual from the problem and helping them look at their situation as a third person. That way they will be able to detect and understand their thoughts in a kind of self-reflection method.

This technique is respectful, non-blaming and treats the client as an expert.

Michael White and David Epson, the developers of this technique, wisely stated:

‘The problem is the problem, the person is not the problem’ and making the distinction between the two is essential for this process.

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