Theme
The objects around us are intertwined with our feelings and experiences. Exploring our relationship with objects can help us tell our stories and give us a greater understanding of other people and ourselves. This course will demonstrate how objects can evoke, release and relieve emotions, how objects can become a safe home for these feelings, and how a focus on objects can free the imagination and promote creative practices and relationships.
Although the focus of the training is work with children and young people, the questions posed can be helpfully asked of anyone – young or adult, personal carer or professional worker. Those attending the course will be invited to share objects from their own lives.
The Objects and Their Stories course has been developed from the innovative and pioneering work of Prof Mark Doel, building on successful pilots in Sheffield, London and New York and his original work on the Social Work in 40 Objects project. The training has been developed with support from Coram, and funding from the Hadley Trust and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Learning outcomes
The training is based around six sessions:
- How objects can be meaningful.
- Powerful and precious objects.
- Using objects to tell the world who you are.
- Uncomfortable, puzzling or painful objects.
- Using objects and collections of objects to make difficult situations easier.
- Exploring life stories through objects.
Although the focus of the training is work with children and young people, the questions posed can be helpfully asked of anyone – young or adult, personal carer or professional worker. Those attending the course will be invited to share objects from their own lives.
Participants will receive a Resource Pack, with practice examples and case studies, and a quick start guide for each module. Communication between participants is facilitated to encourage support both during and after the training, with meetings with a course ‘buddy’ suggested between training sessions.
Who should attend?
The course is designed for foster carers and social workers to build on their initial training and is a natural progression and development of life story work. The training will focus on the individual, their story, and how to incorporate this into the work they do with children and young people.
The course is structured as a reflective space for practitioners and carers, with significant time given to attendees to reflect on their own work and experiences, as well as the children and young people they support. The group is encouraged to try the skills and approaches between sessions, with communication within the group facilitated to support implementation in practice, and build a kind and reflective network for support in the longer-term.
See future dates for this course or commission the course for your organisation and we can come to you.