STORY EMOTION SOCIAL THERAPY (SEST) · GUIDE TO TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
SEST training gives you a research-backed framework for the social-emotional work you’ve been piecing together on your own.
WholeStory Speech: Building social and communication skills through storytelling
Articulation, language, fluency; you’ve got those down pat. But the social-emotional side? Most programs barely touched it, and almost never with a real framework behind it.
So, you’ve improvised, pieced it together, and trusted your gut and hoped it held.
SEST gives you structure: a research-informed, storytelling-based method grounded in clinical frameworks you already respect, turning instinct into an approach you can teach, repeat, and stand behind.
In a field full of generalists, the SEST Certified Practitioner is a signal. It tells families and referral sources you do something most others can’t.
And for many practitioners, the real return is feeling lit up by the work again. The shifts don’t stay in the therapy room, either, and many tell us SEST changed how they listen at their own dinner tables, too.
This isn’t a video library you binge alone at 11 pm.
You train directly with Dr. Rochel Lieberman in face-to-face sessions, real mentorship, and live feedback on your actual cases. You’re learning a researched and proven method from the source.
SEST training is selective on purpose.
When you earn SEST Certified Practitioner, it means something.
Thank you for your interest in Story Emotion Social Therapy, the SEST methodology, and the research framework for the WholeStory approach.
To use SEST within your practice, you first participate in the Principal Training, which teaches you to use SEST with neurotypical children.
You will then move on to Advanced Training. This training gives you deeper knowledge to use SEST effectively with children with social learning, social-emotional, and/or social anxiety issues.
This includes SCD, ASD Level 1, or no diagnostic label at all. Advanced Training also teaches you to work holistically with parents.
To apply to the Principal Training, please complete and return the Application Form at the end of this document. Feel free to contact me! I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about SEST or these training courses.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rochel Lieberman
"If telling kids what to do worked, they'd already be doing it."
SEST encourages individuals to communicate better about themselves, their thoughts, emotions, and desires, through the medium of storytelling.
SEST does not require strict adherence to a set of rules. Instead, it is a flexible approach that recognizes the individual’s “wholeness” and accepts them for who they are in the moment.
The SEST practitioner guides the child into and through that moment, encouraging open, meaningful communication and genuine skill development.
The goal is for the child to communicate from a place of authenticity, drawing on their own real experience to connect with another person, rather than rehearsing a script that only deepens the disconnection.
Assumptions of ability are not part of SEST. 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 SEST and learning storytelling alongside their child, as well as ways to practice it together outside the therapy setting.
SEST WholeStory is designed for speech-language pathologists to use 1:1 with children ages 6+.
The SLP may be in private practice or work within a team setting (school, center).
Educators should not use this approach independently in a classroom or small-group sessions, nor should mental health practitioners use it if they have not completed SEST Training.
That said, a SEST-trained SLP can design a program led by the SLP, in collaboration with an educator or MH professional, as the need arises.
SEST helps children discover answers inside themselves, guided via their shared communication with the therapist (the listener) using SEST’s WholeStory Approach.
The SEST-trained practitioner views the child’s story, answers questions, and performance within exercises as traceable clues that help connect the dots, both socially and systematically.
These clues help the child and caregiver better understand the child’s story, thought processes, and approach to challenges, while working together to identify possible problems and brainstorm solutions or resolutions.
Children learn to tap into themselves by telling narratives, the stories on their minds, and gaining trust in doing this as a means of shared communication.
These stories are authentic and unfiltered, flowing off their tongue to reveal social and emotional clues that can help improve their social behaviors.
Therapists and parents learn to view the story as a map that helps them gauge what social and emotional or social communication abilities the child has and does not have.
In turn, the therapist crafts a treatment program that comes directly from the stories the child provides.
While any professional can learn the concepts that make up the foundation of SEST, practicing SEST’s WholeStory with children requires specific training.
Therapists interested in being SEST trained need a solid background and understanding of core language and social communication developmental factors.
This includes the ability to use metacognitive reasoning, to what extent they can take others’ perspectives, their active listening abilities, inferential language skills, etc.
For this reason, and because of this list of prerequisite abilities in a therapist, SEST is taught on two levels.
Principal Training teaches how to use the SEST Approach and its materials with neurotypical children or adults.
This level of training assumes the child has at least emerging abilities in perspective-taking and can learn through a language-based approach.
It is geared to helping a child who has weak social communication and/or interpersonal skills, weak group dynamic skills, is shy, or steers away from interpersonal involvement.
Upon completion, participants receive a Certificate of Training Level 1, which entitles them to use SEST WholeStory within their practice with neurotypical children.
Upon completing this Principal training, the therapist will be listed on the WholeStory website as a SEST Approved Practitioner, Level 1 – Neurotypical Children.
This first level of training covers the basic concepts and principles of SEST, outlines story grammar and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) techniques, teaches the parts of a story and how to present them to children, and how to use storytelling to encourage social-emotional communication abilities and self-expression.
Then, through 10 specific exercises, participants are given the teaching tools to use SEST within their practice with neurotypical children.
Advanced Training teachings and exercises are designed to help individuals who need more resounding social-emotional support.
These individuals may be diagnosed with SCD (social communication disorder), ASD Level 1 (autism spectrum disorder), with anxiety/social anxiety, or with no diagnostic label but who still noticeably struggle with social-emotional understanding, learning, and integration.
Advanced Training also teaches therapists how to work more holistically with parents/caregivers, prompting them to develop stronger listening and communication skills so the SEST fundamentals and exercises are widely used outside the therapy room and become meaningful to them and their family.
Completion of this second level of training results in the therapist being listed on the WholeStory website as a SEST Certified Practitioner.
Total SEST Principal Training Program Investment
This includes:
A nonrefundable deposit of $500 is due when you are accepted for training. Payment is due within five days of the acceptance email date.
$1,810. Once you are enrolled in SEST Principal Training, the remaining program balance is due regardless of when your face-to-face training sessions are scheduled or completed.
You may choose one of the following payment options:
If you choose the monthly payment option, your payment method will be charged automatically each month for three months.
Your three monthly payments are billed on a fixed schedule, regardless of when your face-to-face sessions take place.
This fee covers the textbook*, online access to the video training modules, and the individual or small group face-to-face training sessions with Dr. Lieberman.
Upon successful completion of SEST Principal Training, you will receive a certificate and permission to apply for Advanced Training, which can lead to a SEST Certified Practitioner credential so the therapist can use the SEST Approach with both neurotypical children and those with diagnosed and/or more significant social-emotional learning challenges.
* If you purchased a copy of the SEST FUNDAMENTALS Story Emotion Social Therapy: WholeStory Therapist Guide and Principal Curriculum textbook before applying for SEST Principal Training, a $70 credit will be applied toward Payment 2.
After the first year of clinical use of SEST with your clients at your graduation level, you will be required to submit a video module of your continuing use of SEST as part of your annual audit.
Annual Audit Fee: $500
Story Emotion Social Therapy (SEST)
Dear Applicant,
Thank you for your interest in SEST Principal Training. Please complete the information requested below and submit this form, your current resume, and the nonrefundable deposit. You will be notified via email within 4 weeks of your application status. Thank you!
1386 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11213 rochel@wholestoryspeech.com (646)503-3867
