What is Adoption Story Work?
Adoption Story work helps children organize their own story in a way that is concrete enough for them to understand. I believe that every child who is adopted needs to do some story work. I have found that children may understand the facts of their story, but they don’t understand how any of their story impacted them. This often leads to kids who feel like they need to be in control of their environment because at one point they felt such a lack of control. Another typical scenario is that kids will be worried about everything because at one point they had no control.
Benefits for Child
Story work helps them not just understand their story in sequence, but also helps them understand what they may have felt at each stage and how that affects them today.
Benefits for Parents
Story work helps parents see how their child understands his/her adoption.
Parents are often shocked at some of the false beliefs that children will communicate during this guided activity. Parents tell me that being present for this story coaching is very helpful. While watching the process, they become more comfortable with talking about certain elements of the child’s story. Many parents feel like they must protect a child from their painful story, but you can’t protect a child from something that already happened to them. Your job as a parent is to help them organize what has already happened. This work helps parents walk their children through that process. Parents are the healing agents in their kids’ lives.
How the Process Works
Story work is unique for each child’s story. Depending on the age of the child, the story work process could take between 4-10 sessions. Both the child and parent work actively through the process together. If you feel adoption story work would be beneficial for your child, schedule an Intake session with Dr. Aguayo to see if she is the right fit for you.