Life Story Work: Reflections on the Experience by Looked after Young People

Abstract

Rachel Willis and Sally Holland report on a qualitative study of young people's experiences of life story work. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 12 young people aged 11–18 and looked after by one local authority in South Wales. They had experienced a wide range of styles and content of life story work. The young people reflected on both the emotional aspects of the work and the new information they had gained about their own histories. Life story work invoked a range of emotions among participants, including tedium, pleasure, anger and sadness. It also appeared to have a function in helping young people to work out aspects of their identity. All were positive about the experience, although a small number had found the process tedious at times or intrusive to their everyday lives. Most envisaged a future role for the life story books in their lives, expecting to return to the work for their own reflection or to show it to others. The article concludes that both the process of life story work and the material record produced are important to looked after young people. The paucity of empirical studies in this area is noted and suggestions for future research are made.