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All About Me is the initial entry point into Creative Life Story Work for children and young people.
Over six sessions, it gives them the opportunity to explore who they are today, explore what is happening right now, and express their hopes and dreams for the future in a safe, creative space.
Children and young people can either take part in All About Me Creative Experience in a group setting facilitated by an Artist and a Pastoral Support Worker, or engage in All About Me direct work with a trusted adult, such as a foster carer or social worker.
All About Me is built around six themes. Each theme is explored in one All About Me session, lasting one hour.
1. This is me
The aim of this theme is to support the child to think about themselves and to understand how they see themselves. It can provide you with an understanding of them through their eyes.
2. My favourite things
This theme supports the child to think about what is important to them. Rather than thinking about their favourite people, this theme is more related to things, like colours, hobbies, school or college, and toys. By exploring these things alongside a child, it will add to your knowledge about potential ways into other conversations.
3. My feelings
The aim of this section is to support the child to explore their emotions in the present. This may include exploring what emotions are and different ways to identify them. Take every opportunity you can to help discuss and model emotions. Through this approach, the child you are supporting will understand the feelings you, and they, have. They will begin to name these as ‘I feel angry’ instead of ‘being angry’.
4. People in my life
Here, we support the child to think about the people in their lives. This could include people they don’t currently see (i.e. birth family), friends, carers, relatives, as well as their current ‘family unit’.
5. Places I have lived
Many of the children we engage with have lived in different homes, with different families and different carers. It is very helpful for children to consider, comment on and understand the physical journey of their lives and to make sense of the meaning behind the changes.
Often children will blame themselves for the changes in their various moves and so this section can witness their thoughts and feelings around the places they have lived. It is a vital part of the All About Me approach, where unspoken shame, guilt, blame and confusion often resides.
6. My future
By exploring this theme, we support the child or young person to look ahead – not just a few moments, hours or weeks, but to the next years, and to imagine, hope and aspire to be all they can be.
There are many children that are stuck in the past and have no way of freeing themselves from confusion, hurt, shame or assumed responsibility, so thinking of what comes next is really helpful.
This section encourages you to talk with the child or young person about their future, which may include people, where they want to live, what they will be doing, hobbies etc. ‘In the next six months I would like to… I would like… to happen, I hope to…’.
We’ve created resources which you can use to explore the six themes with children and young people, including:
A creative Life Story Work membership will give you access to all our resources, and it includes free entry to 12 of our Live Classrooms per year, where you can learn directly from experts in life story work.
We are grateful to have received core funding from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Segelman Trust and the Sir James Knott Trust.
