Explore Therapeutic Life Story Work as Diploma course launches for 2024 

Ahead of the Autumn 2024 Diploma course in Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW), Children in Scotland is offering a free information session, taking place on Tuesday 20 February, for anyone interested in finding out more about the course and its content.

Delivered by course director, Richard Rose, of Therapeutic Life Story Work International (click here for more), the special event is a one-hour online session, that will offer everything participants need to know about the groundbreaking training, from how it works to what kind of commitment the Diploma will involve from students, and will also include a Q&A.

TLSW enables children and young people who have experienced the trauma of child abuse and neglect, and who are struggling with the pain of their past, to reflect, develop compassion for themselves and move forward. The Diploma is a comprehensive 12-day course based on Professor Richard Rose's Life Story Therapy with Traumatised Children - A Model for Practice (2012), designed to equip participants with the skills, knowledge and experience to undertake TLSW with children and young people. 

Ahead of the 2024 intake, Children in Scotland spoke to previous attendees, from St. Andrew’s Children’s Society, who shared the significant impact studying for the Diploma has had on their work.  

Emma Quinn, Social Worker at St. Andrew’s Children’s Society said: 

“I began the TLSW training in September 2022, and I was relatively new to my role and social work having qualified just under two years prior. I wasn’t sure what to expect, nor was I sure if I had enough experience to undertake the Diploma in Therapeutic Life Story Work, however, from the outset I recall it being such a welcoming, inclusive, and nurturing learning environment that I felt right at home.   

Richard Rose has a wealth of knowledge at his disposal, along with a variety of guest speakers - the training is engaging and supportive. I really enjoyed the fact that right from the start we were utilising our wallpapers and working together on what sessions would look like as this really brings the theory to life.

I found undertaking the Diploma has improved my overall confidence with discussing theory and delivering direct work right from the start. If you are lucky enough to have an assigned case for TLSW at the start of the course, each block carries you through the stages you will roughly be at which again, I found really helpful to ask questions, discover resources and really just to make sure I was on the right track.   

I honestly use bits from the Diploma every day in work, whether that be quick activities with children and young people that don’t require many resources (dots game, squiggle), or the preoccupation chart to explain to prospective adopters the importance of self-care and being aware of our own emotions, to the sticky note of attachment to discuss how multiple moves can impact on a child’s ability to attach and feel safe with their adopters. If I could, I would happily do this course again, and there are not many courses you could say that for!” 

Tim Rogerson also a Social Worker at St. Andrew’s Children’s Society, said: 

“I have been lucky enough to be granted the opportunity to undertake the TLSW Diploma. Having completed half of the training blocks so far, this has already allowed me to consolidate my existing understanding of my role as a social work practitioner, to explore the theoretical perspectives that underpin the TLSW model, and to equip me with some highly practical and creative tools to carry out any counselling work I do in my role as a fostering and adoption social worker. I am just over two years qualified now, and already I can see the benefits to my current practice, in all aspects of my work at St Andrew’s Children’s Society, whether it be in my assessment of prospective adopters, any trainings I have helped deliver, or in any direct adoption counselling work I undertake.

“During my social work degree, and in my previous adoption counselling work at the agency, 'use of self' was a construct I have long been familiar with. At some level, I feel I have intuitively known this in any of the work I have done throughout my life which has involved helping others, whether it be those with disabilities, mental health difficulties or in my role as a support worker of older adults, many of whom were in their last days. Since undertaking the TLSW Diploma, I feel I have been granted a greater appreciation for the importance of the underlying process of this work, its value, and in knowing not only what I do as a practitioner, but why.” 

Click here to find out more about the TLSW Diploma, or to sign up for the free taster session