Resources

The following resources provide practical ideas for working on mental health and trauma issues in contexts of therapy, community work, and psychosocial support.

Collective narrative practice: Responding to individuals, groups, and communities who have experienced trauma, David Denborough

This book introduces a range of hopeful methodologies to respond to individuals, groups, and communities who are experiencing hardship. These approaches are deliberately easy to engage with and can be used with children, young people, and adults. The methodologies described include: the Tree of Life, the Team of Life, Checklists of social and psychological resistance, Collective narrative timelines, Maps of history, and Songs of sustenance.

Strengthening resistance: The use of narrative practices in working with genocide survivors, David Denborough, Jill Freedman, and Cheryl White – booklet & DVD

This powerful, inspiring, and practical book and DVD package provides options for workers dealing with significant mental health and trauma issues in the wake of war and genocide, as well as natural disasters and other significant hardship. By describing the work of Ibuka, the national genocide survivors’ association in Rwanda, it also shows how narrative approaches can be used in the aftermath of extreme trauma.

Conversations about gender, culture, violence & narrative practice: Stories of hope and complexity from women of many cultures, edited by Angel Yuen & Cheryl White

This inspiring book consists of writings from women of many cultures about initiatives, projects, and ways of working to respond to violence. It describes narrative ways of working with those who have experienced violence and creative ways of engaging with men and women who have enacted violence against others.

Tree of Life: An approach to working with vulnerable children [DVD], presented by Ncazelo Ncube (REPSSI). Co-developed by Ncazelo Ncube and David Denborough

The ‘Tree of Life’ exercise was developed during a workshop at Masiye Camp, Zimbabwe, which provides psychosocial support to orphans, vulnerable children, and young people in sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, the Tree of Life has been run by community workers around the world to help children find ways of talking about trauma in ways that are not re-traumatising.

Telling our stories in ways that make us stronger, Barbara Wingard and Jane Lester

In this graceful, strong, and thoughtful book, Barbara Wingard and Jane Lester share stories of their lives and work as Aboriginal women. Chapters include: Finding culturally-appropriate ways to grieve, remember, and heal; Understanding Aboriginal homelessness; Talking about diabetes; and Responding to family violence.

Trauma: Narrative responses to traumatic experience, edited by David Denborough

This wide-ranging, thoughtful, and practice-based book provides clear ideas about how to respond to adults, couples, and children who have endured traumatic experience. The book includes stories of inspiring work from Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Israel, and South Africa.