ABSTRACT
Children and young people exist within family and caregiving systems. Each person in the family and caregiving system influences the intra-actions between all members of that system. This is no different for families containing a child who has sustained a brain injury. As social, meaning-making beings, we tell ourselves and others stories to understand and make sense of our experiences. Stories that we live in the face of traumatic experiences can be partial and stuck. Using a detailed practice example, I describe how exploring and developing the stories lived and told about childhood brain injury can help families to open conversational space and to develop new and more helpful ways of going on together. Working reflexively, making space to explore the resonances of the work for the therapist is a vital part of providing high-quality therapeutic presence. I argue that working within a narrative, storytelling and systemic frame is an effective way of supporting the child and their family to find ways of living and relating well after childhood brain injury.
