Their stories
WholeStory Speech is based on its own research-informed framework, Story Emotion Social Therapy (SEST) developed through clinical practice and published in a peer-reviewed journal. It trades social scripts for something that lasts: a child’s own words.
SEST
Behind every WholeStory session is a research framework called SEST — Story Emotion Social Therapy. Developed by Dr. Rochel Lieberman, it is the clinical backbone that makes WholeStory more than a feel-good idea.
It gives children a way to tell their story. What happened, what they wanted, what got hard, how they felt. This helps the adults around them offer the right kind of support.
WholeStory
SEST
The building blocks
The SEST WholeStory approach uses methodologies from:
SEST’s WholeStory approach is not a trend or a set of opinions. It was developed over years of clinical practice and formal research, published in a peer-reviewed journal, and continually presented at state and national conventions.
With this innovative, research-backed approach, you’ll understand a child’s full story and help them navigate the social world authentically.
DOI: 10.1080/08893675.2022.2089689 Co-authored with Dr. Gary Dick, PhD, a social work professor with over 40 years of experience in psychosocial therapy. This paper formalized the Story Emotion Social Therapy framework.
From hunch to headline:
WholeStory Speech encourages individuals to more fully communicate about themselves, their thoughts, emotions, and desires through the medium of storytelling.
It is a flexible approach that recognizes the “wholeness” of the individual and accepts individuals for who they are in the moment. The SEST WholeStory practitioner guides them in and through that moment while encouraging more open and meaningful communication and skill development.
Practitioners are taught to “see” the client as they come to a session, physically, emotionally, and holistically, and work together from that point of reference.
Parents are an integral component of the WholeStory approach and learn about the mechanical and emotional aspects of storytelling of everyday experiences alongside their children, as well as ways to practice it together outside the therapy setting.
At the heart of the WholeStory Approach is describing a situation, a problem, or an experience, including expressing related thoughts and feelings, in an organized way that helps children build social language and social communication skills.
Storytelling about everyday experiences is a multi-functional tool that gives therapists a wide range of insight into a child’s current language abilities and social-emotional awareness and knowledge. Through the SLP’s initial invitations to tell a story, the therapist can assess:
For instance, an SLP may notice that a child doesn’t take the entire situation into account in a tangle with a friend or understand how context shapes the cause and effect of behaviors. Weaker social-emotional learning areas can then be addressed separately by the SLP (if trained in SEST WholeStory) to strengthen the child’s narrative/storytelling and overall social communication abilities.
It is important to understand that at no point are we using stories to provide rote scripts or language for children to use during social situations. “Say hi to grandpa” or “ask the classmate what you did this weekend?” are not the teaching tools of SEST’s WholeStory approach.
Nor does the WholeStory approach provide social skills checklists or monitoring forms, where parents observe their child’s behavior and check off or rate its applicability to the situation or how much the child has progressed during therapy.
The WholeStory approach is granular, responsive, and designed to address the content and issue the narrative relates to while encouraging the child to consider alternative interpretations.
With any event or situation, there are the facts and our interpretations. SEST addresses the facts while encouraging children to consider multiple interpretations based on their needs and goals.
| Somebody | Wanted | Because | But | Thoughts & Feelings | So | At the End | Thoughts & Feelings |
|---|
Swipe left to see the full table →
This method is incredibly powerful because it gives children hope that they can learn to rise above situations where they may feel ‘stuck.’ The flexibility of each part of the SEST Approach allows therapists to tailor the experience to the individual needs of the child, further enhancing the effectiveness of the therapy. Through this narrative-based method, children develop a deeper understanding of their emotions and learn strategies that not only help them navigate their current challenges, but also equip them with lifelong tools for emotional regulation and resilience
The SEST Approach is a powerful and empowering way to help children communicate about and draw connections between inner experiences and the outside world. By helping kids articulate Somebody/Wanted/But/Thoughts & Feelings/So/At the End/Thoughts and Feelings, it promotes empathy, self-awareness, self-compassion, and self-regulation.
Why kids need new tools
Hours online per day
Most of it spent socially isolated, with headphones on
Emotional wellbeing
children and teens suffer from anxiety
The cascade
Language is key to healthy social-emotional development, helping kids tolerate uncomfortable emotions. SEST’s WholeStory approach is a research-based approach that gives children the same tools used in storytelling to learn to communicate more effectively.
The payoff
These can help with:
From the families who lived it
“I highly recommend the WholeStory method for children who have a difficult time expressing their story. This method also helps parents connect to their children and understand them better. I am lucky that I was able to be part of my daughter’s journey rather than just a bystander. This helped me become a better person and a better mother.”
One last thing
The clearest way to experience SEST’s WholeStory approach is to bring it into your community. Dr. Lieberman turns the framework into a room full of parents and educators who finally have the language and the tools to support the children they love.
