Richelle Ready, RSW, shared in the February 23, 2026 LSB Practice Zoom meeting
Since I transitioned back into counselling, I am integrating the Life Story Board into my practise https://ursapsychology.ca/team . Here is a case example, exploring and processing coping strategies in a youth client.
Initial Assessment I used the Life Story Board in the initial appointment with this youth in assessment, so this was the second time that they had seen it. In the first session, they did a family map and a social support map. They used the yellow bottom section as themselves, and the had the middle section for people close to them, with the three ‘panels’ of time for past and present.
Second session In the education session that followed, we discussed the Coping Strategies Inventory, [example: EMDR Coping Strategies Inventory] different categories of coping strategies, different uses of coping strategies, consequences of coping strategies, whether positive or negative, for our physical wellbeing, and whether those coping strategies have positive or negative consequences for ourselves or others around us.
Third Session, with LSB For a follow-up session with the Life Story Board, I put together a list of all of the coping strategies we had identified doing the the coping strategy inventory, and others, particularly adding in some additional coping skills that might feel potentially uncomfortable, specifically around cutting, having thoughts about dying, having thoughts about not wanting to be here anymore, punching, being physically aggressive, those things that people do to cope with their experience that maybe they wouldn’t identify for themselves.
To begin, the youth drew their social circle onto the life storyboard using a whiteboard marker, no cards. They drew themselves, then the important people in their family. They drew the important people in their friend group. They drew important adults in their life. That included some teachers.
Then with the large Zone Card circles, the ‘Realms’, we placed around the board. One circle for what we’re not going to talk about, so coping strategies they didn’t want to discuss went there. One circle was for coping strategies that, like, “someone in the world uses this as a coping strategy, but no one that I know uses it.” One circle for themselves, one for their friends, and one for their family members, five altogether.
In preparation, I had written on the square magnets all of the coping strategies. And we placed them in the different circles around the board.
After they had placed all of the different coping strategies onto the board, we went through the different categories and clusters. We ranked their friends’ coping strategies in a list, moving the markers into a list, like, “this is the one that my friends use most often”. “This is the one that my friends use least often”.
Then we turned to the Family realm, and the youth chose to separate out the coping strategies that different members of their family had used and placed those coping strategies onto their different family members. And again, they chose to rank them based on the things that they most commonly use and the things that they most don’t use.
reflections, looking ahead We will be exploring this again further. I’m going to recreate the board next time we meet because in this discussion, this opportunity, the youth shared for the first time that they were really worried about one of their siblings, and it created a really emotional reaction for them that we then sat with and explored and practised some of the coping strategies that we were talking about to bring the youth back to a space where they felt safe leaving the session.
We would not have got to a space without the opportunity for the youth to communicate non-verbally by moving the pieces around. And a key piece about really important for this youth was that they had the autonomy to say,” I’m not going to talk about those coping strategies. I don’t want to talk about those today, “and place them away so that they weren’t to alleviate some of the worry about potentially what questions would or would not be asked.
So I’m excited to do another session to follow up with their coping strategies and what things that they have chosen for themselves as their coping strategies. And then explore how the different coping strategies used by their family impacts them, and to look at that those impacts and be able to map that out.
Interestingly, the youth said, talking later, one of the things they remembered from the first session was how many people she feels close to, through the visual representation about the people in her world. That wasn’t something that she had thought about before, It came up as a surprise that she felt many connections and that was a positive revelation. .