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Professor Richard Rose, who is the founder of Therapeutic Life Story Work International, shares a short introduction to trauma and its impact.
Richard, what’s your definition of trauma?
My simple explanation of definition would be trauma is the unresolved residuals of past events that we have not made our peace with.
We’re never going to forget a trauma event. We’re never going to forget what happened. But what we will be able to learn is to make sense of it. To understand we can’t change it, but it doesn’t have to define us.
Trauma isn’t the event. It’s the residuals left over afterwards. And unless we can work through this, how can we help that child to recover? So in therapeutic life story work, we are interested in what caused
You can read more about Richard’s definition of trauma here>>
You use the following quote from Stephen King in your work. Can you explain its relevance?
“The truth is that monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win.” Stephen King.
Monsters are those behaviours which come out when we’re most at risk. Whether that’s shouting at someone, trying to hurt someone, or running away, these behaviours are designed to keep us safe.
We know that, if children are trying to survive the chaos of domestic violence or neglect, or emotional, physical or sexual harm, they produce these coping mechanisms or defense mechanisms. They create ways to survive and manage.
And once these behaviours work, and they continue to work, why would they not be the behaviours that children choose when they’re in different environments, but feel that same threat?
We don’t just say to children, “You’ve got to stop what you’re doing”. We try to work out what it is they are doing. We try to bear witness to what that might mean.
We need to understand these monsters.
And what about ghosts – what do they represent?
The ghosts are the trauma – things from the past which we haven’t quite managed.
Think about your own life history. Things have happened to us that have shaken us or that have made us very sad. It might be losing a loved one. It might be a divorce or separation. We might have moved from somewhere familiar to somewhere unfamiliar.
If we don’t work it through, this unresolved residual will pop back up again. And when it pops back up again it creates a reaction in us which takes us right back to the original trauma.
We are interested in the monsters – the behaviours, the reactions – and the ghosts – what caused those things and what feeds those things.
Why do you find this analogy useful?
This is a quote which I used with young people who are eight and over. Children understand monsters and ghosts. And it normalises that we all have these things in us. That none of us are monsters but some of us have had monstrous things happen to us. And those monstrous things have shaped our behaviours, our understanding of the world, our understanding of ourselves and of those in our world.
Online training
Professor Richard Rose, and other life story work experts, deliver regular Live Classrooms on topics including trauma, and supporting traumatised children.
The Creative Life Story Work podcast
You can also listen to Richard talk about attachment and trauma in this episode of the Creative Life Story Work podcast.
As well as being a truly inspiring trainer, Richard is the Director of Therapeutic Life Story Work International. He provides consultancy and training on Therapeutic Life Story Work and develops academic training programmes in the UK and internationally.
Richard is a regular visitor to Australia where he is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Honorary Associate of Berry Street, Melbourne. He is also an Honorary Associate of the Open Adoption Institute, University of Sydney.
In the USA, he presents for Portland State University, DHS Oregon and ORPARC (Adoption Services).
Richard is the author of The Child’s Own Story – Life Story Work with Traumatised Children (2004); Life Story Therapy with Traumatised Children – A Model for Practice (2012) and Innovative Therapeutic Life Story Work (2017).
