New Therapeutic Child Care module launches at Wrexham Glyndwr University

A new therapeutic child care module looking at story work has been launched by Wrexham Glyndwr University.

The standalone module, Therapeutic Story Work, is a short course which started at the end of November, having featured at the Therapeutic Child Care conference in October.

Dr Vivienne Dacre, Principle Lecturer in Therapeutic Child Care at Wrexham Glyndwr, says that due to the volume of interest, the course is already fully booked – but hopes that it will be run again to enable more people to benefit from it.

“Delegates from the conference were able to sign up on the day”, Dr Dacre said.

“The group will meet virtually, for an hour every week through to May, but will also access learning online and can work at their own pace around their normal working patterns.

“The aim of the module is to promote understanding of how stories and storytelling can be a fundamental way that people can make sense of their lives.

“We will examine the therapeutic use of stories and storytelling. Many of the delegates will be working with vulnerable children.”

The course is suitable for anyone involved in helping relationships, especially those interested in the creative arts – which might be people with pastoral responsibilities in schools, working in residential or foster care, or volunteering in the community with children.

Dr Dacre added: “It will cover aspects such as storytelling and communication skills, multi-layered stories, activities you can do with children around storytelling, and storytelling through poetry, fiction, autobiography and performance.

“Those taking part will complete a project creating a story using metaphor. We also take a look at archivists and how they use artefacts from the past to shed a window on stories.”

“All of us have stories – about who we are, where we’re from, our place in the world, and when we get together with family and friends, our stories are told.

“With children in care, often they have moved placements time and time and again, they can have very fragmented stories, they may not have those celebratory times when they get together with family and say ‘do you remember when…’

“This means there is very important work around stories that has to take place with looked after children. Sometimes it is quite formal as in ‘life story work’ but you can do all sorts of very creative things with children to keep hold of their stories in the moment and celebrate their achievements and uniqueness.

“It’s important to work creatively with children, to help them understand their stories.”
Details of when the Therapeutic Story Work course will run next will be available on the Wrexham Glyndwr University website at a future date.

More information about the FdA Therapeutic Child Care course, can be found here. Details about the BA (Hons) Therapeutic Child Care (Top-up), can be found here.