rock, Author at Innovative Resources

The stories of how people use materials developed by Innovative Resources never fail to inspire us with their practice wisdom. We received the following stories about using Shadows and Deeper Shadows in family violence situations:

From Lili

‘I like Shadows and Deeper Shadows because the artwork facilitates the identification and exploration of people’s darkest moments. The brilliance of these images is in their ability to hold the client while they make meaning of their pain and suffering. At the same time the cards also offer opportunities for sourcing strength, hope and resilience.

The golden shadow can be found in each image.

A few years ago I used the cards when counselling a 7-year-old girl who was experiencing family violence. I will call her Gemma. I asked Gemma to depict what it was like for her and her 5-year-old sister at home. Gemma selected an image of a burnt forest. All of the trees were charred and burnt down to their stumps. Gemma said that this was how she felt at home, like a bush fire was wiping out the family. At the base of one of the tree stumps was a new shoot. This new shoot had green leaves and a smaller shoot was growing from it. Gemma described that there was hope in the image because there was new life following the destruction. She said that she was the first shoot, and her little sister was the off-shoot, who she supports throughout the destruction. This conversation produced numerous themes for the following sessions.

I have also used this resource with men who have used violence towards their partners and children. Some of these men have found it difficult to articulate the impact that their behaviour has had on their family. I have asked men to select an image that depicts how their partners or children may have experienced their violence. Their responses have been reflective and insightful.’

From Susan

‘I like Shadows and Deeper Shadows because I have found that the card set really opens up the client to me and shows me exactly where they are and where they travel to throughout the time I work with them.

The adult clients I have used the cards with, who have experienced family violence, see two clear sides to their chosen card. Initially, at the beginning of the client/worker journey, it is slightly darker, focussed on the shadows in the pictures – a negative, almost sad place, where the client hides. However, when looking at the same picture at the end of the collaborative journey, when the client is in a more positive place, I have found the client noticing the light in the pictures, the objects that are creating the shadow rather than the shadow itself. This really signifies the transition the client has made and the confidence that they have found.’

Thank you to everyone for sharing your practice stories. We love to hear them, and most of all, we hope they inspire others with creative ideas they can use in their work with others.

At Innovative Resources we never tire of hearing about new and creative ways that people use Picture This.

Why is it so useful, and so popular?

Possibly because of the large number and variety of photos within the set, or maybe because there is always at least one card you can choose in relation to a goal you might have, a place you might have been, a memory, or as a metaphor for where you are right now.

The photo of the plane flying close to the power lines, the roller coaster and the busy bee are just a few of my favourites.

In a workshop with student entrepreneurs I remember one participant selecting the photo of a warm and cosy bar. When I asked him why he chose that card, he said that as an entrepreneur he would turn that bar from being empty to being full of people.

A former CEO at St Luke’s explored Picture This at a management retreat. He asked us to select a card that said something about ourselves. I remember picking the card with the bee on a flower. It gave rise to a realisation in me that I was like a busy bee. I would think I was taking on too much and drop a few things off, such as committees and working groups, only to find that six months later I was back with the same load. I realised that maybe what energises me is participating and balancing several balls in the air at once.

We’ve found that Picture This appeals to practitioners who are supporting the people they work with to set goals or recognise what they’ve achieved. It’s worked well for leaders who are doing team building and want to encourage shifts in the way colleagues view one another. And it’s provided inspiration for narrative work and storytelling in a wide variety of settings—including schools.

When my children were in secondary school, at least once a year one of them would come home and say, ‘Oh, Mum, we used those Picture This cards again today. You know, the Innovative Resources ones.’

Georgena Stuckenschmidt

In this complex and uncertain world there is nothing more certain than the challenges of parenting. Long has it been remarked that this fundamental role in society is undertaken without the training, supports and qualifications required for much less demanding activities. However, as the centuries have passed, we have been able to adapt and develop our parenting practices, re-think our impacts as parents on our children’s wellbeing, and alter our cultural attitudes and behaviours towards our offspring accordingly. This does not negate the struggles we experience on a daily basis as parents, however. From the time of the birth of our child we are learning to nurture and respond to another human being with a unique combination of needs, temperament, personality, learning style and responses to the world to which they are exposed.

In the twenty-first century, we are continuing to experience rapid change in demographics, in technology and workplace demands, as well as in the pressures to raise our children to be healthy citizens. Shifts in attitudes and laws associated with the discipline of children, changes in the nature of our working lives, and contradictions in values related to childrearing and market forces are only some of the factors that combine to impact on our sense of what it is to be a good parent to our children. In spite of the range of research on so many facets of family life and child development, we also still have little to guide us on what sort of resources parents need, want, and are able to access at those times when the challenges become tough.

In recent postgraduate research carried out through La Trobe University, Bendigo¹, our analysis of interview data obtained from parents suggests that parents respond to their children based on a complicated array of factors including the modelling by their own parents, observations of family and peers, the influences of marketing, professional opinions and the particular demands that face them at any point in time. Those who have less opportunity for support, are vulnerable or are disadvantaged, are often left feeling inadequate and even frightened by the expectations of being a good enough parent, while those who come to the notice of welfare authorities often feel debilitated and blamed for failing to provide care that might be beyond their current capacities.

In other studies, attention has been given to children who experience out-of-home care and the trauma associated with these circumstances. A return to their family of origin means additional pressures for those parents who may not have had opportunities to develop expertise to deal with the impacts of trauma and problems of attachment.

Positive parenting, as a concept, has been discussed in education and welfare circles for many years now, with some notable authors such as Dr Matthew Sanders providing a model for parenting that has been widely promoted². However, parents’ motivations to provide beneficial outcomes for their children do not always lead to the purchase and reading of books, nor a commitment to maintaining new patterns of parenting based on specific models. It is in the conversations between parents, between professional staff and parents, and between parents and their children that motivation and change become established. Ideas about parenting, like most ideas, need to be discussed within the context of an engaged relationship—in which trust and openness and sharing can occur. It is through these conversations that people are able to see more deeply into their desires for their children, to locate and overcome barriers to achieving better outcomes for their children, and feel supported in their goals.

Professional staff working with parents need straightforward tools for engaging parents in conversations about their children and the card set Positive Parenting provides a medium through which this can occur. The questions are open, allowing parents to contemplate what it is they want and their priorities; and to reflect on the influences shaping their parenting and the direction they wish to take. The design of the cards has a gentle, homelike feel with everyday objects used on an uncluttered background. The fabric-like pattern is subdued so that the effect is light in touch, leaving the questions, themselves, constituting the challenge to parents’ thinking. The questions are skilfully crafted to explore parents’ sense of themselves in their parenting role, the influences of others on their parenting and their hopes for the future. This is one of the consistent strengths of Innovative Resources’ approach to tools—the ability to access conversations about hopes and change, without negating the need to talk about fears and concerns. Reading through the questions on the cards resulted in many pauses on my part, as I remembered some of the parenting behaviours that I valued, that I had rejected and that I always wondered about.

There is no perfect way to parent and it is easy to regret decisions with hindsight, but this card set carries with it the sense that wherever we are on our parenting journey, there is still much to contemplate, to share, to hope for and to smile about as we watch our children mature and make their own way to become caring adults.

by Dr Jennifer Lehmann, Senior Lecturer, La Trobe University, from the Booklet accompanying Positive Parenting cards

Rachael S, Lehmann J & Gardner F 2014, ‘Parents’ Experiences of Early Parenthood – Preliminary Findings’, Children Australia, 39(3), pp 185-194. doi:10.1017/ cha.2014.20
Sanders, MR 2004, Every parent: a positive approach to children’s behaviour, rev edn, Penguin, Melbourne

If you are a youth worker, counsellor, mentor, teacher, chaplain or welfare coordinator in a school, chances are you’ve come across the Reflexions cards somewhere along the line. You may even have a set kicking around in your tool bag of resources. A new edition of Reflexions was released in 2018 featuring two new cards and a visual makeover throughout. Here’s the low-down:

So what’s different ?

Along with two new cards (now 34 cards instead of 32), every card was updated with new visual elements. These include social media and many other digital references. You will also find references to recent concepts such as ‘fake news’. Images that more fully represent gender inclusiveness, refugees, disability, environmental issues, and other aspects of social justice are also present. Exam and employment stress and other features of many young people’s experience have also been included. The box and back of card images have also been completely revamped, and there is a new ‘Activities Card’ giving you some quick-grab ideas on how to use the cards.

What are the two new cards?

The two new cards are ‘Able to Ask for Help’ and ‘Able to Start Over’—essential resilience skills for anyone. These new cards join the other ‘Able to’ cards in the set, which are: ‘Able to Change’, ‘Able to Work With Others’, and ‘Able to Make Decisions’. That makes 5 ‘Able to’ cards in the new edition.

How do the ‘Able to’ cards from Reflexions work?

The ‘Able to’ cards point the way to how change can happen. Here’s an example of an activity: Put the ‘Able to’ cards to one side and spread out the rest of the Reflexions cards. Invite a young person to pick a card for how they are feeling about something right now (such as school, family, friends, work) and then pick a card for how they would like to be feeling. Then introduce the ‘Able to’ cards and use each one to help shed light on how to get where they want to be.

When was Reflexions first published and why?

Reflexions was first published in 1999, and was the inspiration of Russell Deal, the founder of Innovative Resources. Building on the success of earlier card sets for children and families, Reflexions was designed especially for having conversations with young people about their feelings, identity, relationships, successes, struggles and goals.

What is the purpose of the photomontage design style?

Tim Lane is the designer for both editions of Reflexions. The mix of photographs, other images and fonts add layers of meaning to the key word on each card. Each visual element gives another window into the conversation with the young person. Sometimes gritty and brooding, as well as passionate and soulful, these cards don’t shy away from the depths of feelings that young people experience—the light as well as the dark. But most of all when working with young people—the real.

Where did the photographs come from?

Indigenous young people from Eaglehawk Secondary School in Bendigo, Victoria, were engaged for a photoshoot with Tim. Some of these young people are now parents of young people themselves! These original photographs plus a collection of others by Tim, make up the photography for this card set.

Why was a second edition of this card set published?

It is surprising how well the original photography has stood the test of time. Perhaps this is because emotions and the essence of what people want—happiness, acceptance, relationship, enjoyment, and the power to make choices and find a way through adversity—endures. But in 20 years there have been many changes in young people’s social landscape, and this is what we wanted to represent in the cards.

Where can I find other ideas for using ‘Reflexions’?

The booklet for the first edition contains lots of suggestions for activities, and is on the Reflexions product page. Also on that page you will find an ideas bank with lots of suggestions for activities. Inside the box of the new edition you will also find an Activities Card. And don’t hesitate to give us a call to discuss other ideas or send us an email.

Phone : +61 3 5446 0500. email: info@innovativeresources.org

Other related blogs:

‘Reflexions’ hits the road with a brand new look

Only under certain circumstances does Innovative Resources permit the reproduction of images from our card sets like those displayed in the picture book, Smarty Pants, Kitty or Tiger? Nicole Rotaru from McAuley Community Services for Women approached us and explained the amazing work she was documenting, and requested our permission to use some of our bears and dinosaurs. Nicole explained that one place children experiencing family violence can be given a voice is through their art. Smarty Pants, Kitty or Tiger? is a wonderful representation of children’s voices and we were thrilled to be at the launch back in October 2017.

The following excerpt from an article published by McAuley Community Services places the book in the context of family violence:

Smarty Pants, Kitty or Tiger? gives a first-hand, intimate, disturbing, and sometimes hopeful insight into living within family violence. In this book women and children who have lived within family violence give voice to their experience through art and story as part of a creative arts project at McAuley Community Services for Women’s safe house.

This book was developed to give people, young and old, a greater understanding of the impact of family violence on women and children. We hope, through an understanding of the lived experience of family violence and an awareness of its many manifestations, that as a society we will continue to come to grips with its shocking reality.

Family violence is a crime. Family violence thrives in silence.

These brave, resilient women and children have spoken loudly through their images and stories. Lindy exclaims, ‘He had his hands around my neck. I thought I was going to die. Oh my gosh today is the day I will become a statistic – another woman killed!’ David says, ‘There are a lot of baddies coming.’ Ella utters, ‘Tiger is looking at a deer or elk. He’s going to catch his prey. He’s going to tear it apart.’

We must listen to these women and children. They are telling us about the fear and threat that family violence is. Their voices are a powerful guide to the ongoing development of policies and practices that create, promote and sustain a safe community for us all. As we look at the images and read the unedited stories let’s stand up and say ‘No!’ to family violence. https://www.mcauleycsw.org.au/latest-news/launch-of-smarty-pants-kitty-or-tiger

This isn’t the first time that Innovative Resources and Nicole have crossed paths. Nicole has spent many days, weeks and months working with children in vulnerable communities overseas, and we have featured her in earlier editions of SOON. The most recent was in April 2015, and we have reproduced this article ‘Topping the list with LOVE’ for further reading.

One of the most inspirational things about Nicole is that she gives so much, often in the most challenging of circumstances, and yet she always says how much she receives and learns from the people she meets. Thank you, Nicole, for all that you do. If you are the lucky one, then the people you work with are most truly blessed!

You can purchase Smarty Pants, Kitty or Tiger? by following this link.

Becoming an independent individual is a complex and sometimes difficult journey. Who am I? What am I feeling? What is important to me? What choices and changes do I want? Where am I at and where am I heading? Reflexions can help young people reflect on their lives and see themselves from different angles. These cards are inspirational and motivational—they are a powerful reminder that young people can make active choices about who they want to be.

Working towards change at home or school

Pick a card for how you are feeling about school/home/any situation at the moment. Place it in front of you on the left.
Now pick a card for how you would like to be feeling. Place it in front of you on the right.
Now, look at the 5 ‘Able to’ cards (the ones with the white frame). Which of these card(s) will be most helpful in getting to where you want to be? Place one or more of these between the first two cards.
Have a conversation, and come up with a plan of action for getting from ‘here’ to ‘there’.

Building emotional intelligence with individuals

Spread the cards out on the table or floor. Pick a card that jumps out at you for any reason. Why did you choose this card?
Which cards show feelings/thoughts that you feel you are in control of?
Which cards show feelings or thoughts you have often/seldom?
Which ones would your parents (friends, grandparents, and so on) say that you do well?
Which ones do you enjoy and which ones push you around?
Which ones would you like to change in your life?
What is one thing you could do today towards making this change?
What help or extra resources might assist with this?

Supporting families

Looking at the cards, how do you as a family deal with these feelings/thoughts?
Do you handle each of them constructively?
Are there any that create confusion and upset?
How do different family members enact each feeling/thought?
What are the similarities and differences?
When one family member is enacting one of these feelings/thoughts, how do other members react?
Which of the cards would you as a family like to work on?
What strengths do you have that you can use to work through these?
Do you need extra help or resources?

Building empathy and peer support with groups

What feelings and thoughts does each group member think they handle well/least well?
How can friends help each other when someone is struggling with these feelings and thoughts?
Do you feel under pressure to hide any of these feelings or thoughts?
How might some of these feelings and thoughts lead to dangerous or self-destructive behaviour?
How can this group encourage honest talk and feedback about these things?
How can this group make sure that everyone is heard and welcomed to be themselves?

Random selection

Build fun into the conversation with random selection games such as shuffling and dealing cards, using lucky dips, placing cards at random on chairs, and memory games.

Reflexions is a resources for having authentic conversations with youth about values, feelings, goals, and the changes a young person may want to make. Gritty and broody, as well as passionate and soulful, these cards don’t shy away from the depths of feelings. They can be used to express a wide range of emotions and stories—the light as well as the dark. But most of all when working with young people—the REAL.

Christmas/New Year means precious ‘time out’ for many people. Whether or not these occasions are part of your religious or cultural traditions, the golden combination of summer and public holidays means that many Australians will be heading for the beach, the bush or the backyard during this time. Or maybe just the bean bag on the balcony!

Whatever your destination, this is a season when people in the Southern hemisphere often spend time in the great outdoors. Whether you are catching up with friends, navigating family dynamics, or spending time alone at Christmas—nature offers us solace and renewal. Whatever may be going on in our human world, we can look for opportunities to nourish ourselves by absorbing ourselves in nature’s beauty, power and ingenuity of design.

Since the dawn of human history, spending time in nature has healed and invigorated the human spirit, and inspired our creativity. And don’t think that it is only the romantic poets with their hosts of golden daffodils. Nature offers her beauty and inspiration to all.

You may choose unwind to the sound of the ocean, savour the summer fruit, day-dream in a shady spot, imagine shapes in the play of clouds in the sky, or become absorbed in the silence while overlooking a scene from a high vantage point. Or if silence is not your thing and you prefer the extremes of noise, the drone of cicadas measured at 120 decibels in the Australian bush, which approaches the threshold of human pain, will do the trick nicely!

So forget trying to imitate Santa this Christmas—try some ‘biomimicry’ instead! Biomimicry (or ‘biodesign’ as it is also called) is a rapidly growing but age-old science where the characteristics of the natural world are studied to discover solutions to human challenges, including technical problems. Here are just a few examples:

Velcro was invented in 1941 by George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer who studied the burrs that clung to the fur of his dog. He noticed tiny hooks at the end of each spine that easily caught on looped or curled fibres such as hair or clothing.
The shape and movement of the wings of the bumble bee gave important clues for helicopter flight.
Studies of the reflection of light by the scales on the wings of swallowtail butterflies have led to greater efficiencies in light-emitting diodes.
Studies of the way jellyfish move are contributing to designs that use wave and wind propulsion to create clean energy sources, and even to move tiny medical instruments around the bloodstream.

The Nature of Strengths card set honours this rich tradition of drawing inspiration from nature—not so much for solving technical problems, but for developing the resilience we need to meet the challenges of everyday life.

Each of the 28 cards features a beautiful watercolour painting of an animal, insect or plant, in the style of an 18^th century naturalist’s notebook. A characteristic of that creature or plant is described, and the card is given a related title such as Changing Direction, Holding On, Letting Go, Tuning In, Standing Solid. Think of how useful these strengths are in our own lives! This is a beautiful and very different tool for teachers, counsellors, family and youth workers, mentors, team-builders and wellbeing professionals—anyone who works with others to build strengths and resilience—especially nature lovers.

By Karen Bedford

Anyone who works with people faces a barrage of ethical decisions every day.

All decisions by human services practitioners are taken within the context of values and ethics. Professional bodies and human service organisations generally have codes of conduct that may include ethical principles and standards, and policies and principles of professional practice. While many decisions practitioners make will clearly fall within these boundaries, many will be less clear cut. Each profession and workplace will have some significant conflicts of interest that the practitioner has to negotiate. These conflicts of interest give rise to dilemmas for which there may not be any agreed recipes.

The lived experience of any human service worker is likely to include an awareness of constantly walking the boundaries…

Social work, for example, puts high value on self-determination yet also has a social control function. Client agency at times will conflict with the rights of others in their environment. Wanting the best for a client has to be negotiated within limited budgets and expenditure priorities. Client confidentiality is challenged by assessments of risk. Privacy is also challenged by other things such as location—for example, privacy is much more difficult to maintain in rural situations than in large cities – but nowadays that too is changing with the advent of social media.

Codes of conduct are important as are case-studies that allow ethical principles to be tested. But there is a multitude of ‘small’ decisions that practitioners have to negotiate every day that are arguable; they sit on the boundary between ethical and non-ethical decisions. And there is not always agreement amongst practitioners about what constitutes appropriate behaviour or response by the practitioner.

Walking the Boundaries simply postulates 80 of these ‘everyday dilemmas’ that rarely will have black and white answers. How these dilemmas are viewed depends upon understanding the codes of conduct that are relevant, the actual role one is in, and numerous other variables including culture and geography.

Our human service professions, employing organisations, professional socialisation, peers and supervisory relationships all provide maps that guide ethical conduct, whether or not these guidelines are explicitly articulated in codes of conduct. However, to quote one of the mantras of practice in a post-modern world, ‘The map is not the territory’. While each map can describe the prominent features of the typography (the clearer dos and don’ts and traps for the unwary), the territory that each of us has to transverse can be riddled with ambiguities and little tests that have the capacity to trip us up.

The lived experience of any human service worker is likely to include an awareness of constantly walking on the boundaries; having to think through a myriad of potential pitfalls and mineshafts—any one of which has the capacity to cause profound distress to ourselves, our colleagues, and those we walk alongside.

Do we acknowledge a client when we accidently meet them in the street or at a social event?
How do we answer questions about our families such as do we have children?
What do we say about ourselves on social media?
Do we publicly advocate for political causes or social movements?

Professional codes of conduct attempt to elaborate the vital principle of ‘do no harm’. But any of the above four sample questions could be answered in radically different ways by different individuals in the strongest possible belief that no harm is being done.

Walking the Boundaries of ethical dilemmas is not just about protecting ourselves as practitioners from liability and litigation. Nor is it even just about ‘doing no harm’ to clients. Interrogating, reflecting, openly sharing, inviting feedback and being able to articulate and defend our values and ethical stances is more than clothing ourselves in professional armor. It is more than an afterthought or an appendix to notions of good practice. It is the essence of respectful practice.

From Wal king the B oundaries booklet and card set 2015, St Luke’s Innovative Resources

‘When you talk you are only repeating what you already know. But when you listen, you may learn something new.’ Dalai Lama

Listening is the skill most critical for engagement. The desire to be helpful can sometimes get in the way of good listening and therefore engagement. Sometimes our enthusiasm for finding strengths and positive stories can get in the way of listening to people’s hardships and worries. Equally, our interest in the problem can blind us from seeing strengths. It’s important to remember that listening is not the same as problem-solving, although essential to it. The skills of active listening are important (summarising, checking, paraphrasing, acknowledging, appropriate body language, eye contact and so on).

These skills help ensure that we:

seek to understand and clarify what is communicated
do not interrupt, judge or interpret
do not seek to change what people are saying or alter their meaning
acknowledge and validate experiences and perspectives
seek to hear ‘the whole story’ including the issues, feelings, context, constraints, strengths and aspirations
are able to describe people’s experience, feelings, concerns, strengths, aspirations, goals and plans in the same way they do.

Good listening is an essential skill in working with people. The strengths approach invites us not only to listen well, but to listen for three essential things:

people’s lived experience, the meaning they give it and the context in which
the experience takes place
people’s aspirations, preferences and goals
people’s strengths and capacities and the stories behind them.

Strengths-based listening assists people to reframe their realities and experiences, establishing a springboard for ways forward. The following practice story comes from an interview by Andrew Shirres (2016a) with Phil Watson, a family services team leader. Reflected in this story is the power that acknowledgement, validation and listening in a strengths-based way have to create change. Strengths can be found even in negative experience and behaviour, and the way we frame people’s behaviour can profoundly affect change.

Phil:
I worked with a family recently and the guy had a background with the gangs. [He] was inclined to be quite explosive and had a history of being quite angry. One of the things from strengths-based [practice] that made it really easy was just to sit … and when he got angry … say to him, ‘Hey look, I really appreciate how much you care because your anger is evidence of the fact that you care very, very deeply about this.’ And what that really did was gave him an opportunity to actually be validated. For actually having a strength of feeling and concern about his family … not being judged about the way in which he behaved or demonstrated that. That then gave him an opportunity to sit back and think, ‘Yeah, actually … It’s actually OK for me to care. Maybe my behaviour isn’t the best.’ So it really then gave us an opportunity to have a conversation about … it being OK for him to feel those things really deeply but was there a better way that he could manage, that actually wouldn’t impact or make people around him frightened?

Andrew:
So rather than tell him how he should manage something like that kind of behaviour his participation in that process, in designing the actions himself, if you like, made a difference to your working relationship?

Phil:
Oh, absolutely because it then meant that he understood for the very first time that his getting angry was not necessarily a bad thing ’cos it demonstrated to him that he really did care about things. And previously he had been told that obviously he didn’t care ’cos all he did was get angry. And strengths-based [practice] allowed him to see things in such a way that he could address his behaviour. He really just needed someone to acknowledge the fact that he cared. And for someone to actually identify that just because we behave badly doesn’t mean we have bad intentions. And once he could distinguish the difference between his belief and his behaviour, he was then able to act in a way in which he could begin to match his beliefs and his behaviour. And I think that is one of the great things about strengths-based [practice]. It allows people to be empowered to match their beliefs and behaviours in a positive way.

(Extract from The Strengths Approach, Second Edition, by Wayne McCashen, Chapter 5, pp 94-96, St Luke’s Innovative Resources, 2017)

Sometimes, when you’re feeling stuck, the best thing to do is to get really simple. It may be time to park the big goals, the grand plans, and the long timeframes for now, and come down to simple, practical steps you can take now, today, tomorrow or this week.

Remember: small is beautiful, and even the biggest day begins with a single step (after you have rolled over and turned off the alarm, that is).

Next Steps includes four ‘timeframe cards’ for breaking actions down to the smallest moves. Place these timeframe cards next to other images in the set— such as the glass of water, the shopping trolley, the person walking in the park, the note pad—and create a clear picture of what your next step will be.

Here are some questions you can ask with each timeframe card:

What simple step could you take right now?
How would it help?
Do you need anything to take that step?

What is one positive thing you could do today?
By the end of today, what is one step you would like to have taken?
What could you do to make a start on something today?

What is one useful step you could take tomorrow?
When will you do it, how long will it take, and do you need anything to do it?
Is there something you can do today to prepare for tomorrow’s step?

What steps do you want to take this week?
Is there someone who can support you in achieving them?
How will you acknowledge the effort you have made?

Next Steps contains 4 Timeframe cards and 48 Laminated photos that suggest the next steps you could take!

‘A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.’ (https://www.grammarly.com/blog/metaphor/)

Once upon a time, in a land far away (to use a metaphor to describe our long lost school days) you may have learnt a definition of metaphor similar to the one above. And perhaps it’s just as likely that you have forgotten it. And yet, even if you cannot define what a metaphor is, your language, along with everyone else’s, is ‘filled to the brim’ with metaphor.

One writer about metaphor, James Geary, estimates that we utter a metaphor every 10 to 25 words. Nearly every time we open our mouths metaphors are ‘making a huge splash’, ‘painting an amazing tapestry’ and ‘taking us on a journey through a colourful landscape’.

Isn’t it incredible that we seem to get closest to describing the very essence of something by likening it to something else? No doubt metaphor is the beating heart of communication.

Metaphors are particularly useful when it comes to the difficult task of expressing feelings. Finding the right words to describe how we feel is seldom easy—especially when we humans so often feel many things at once.

This is why Innovative Resources uses a variety of characters as metaphors to help counsellors, social workers, parents and teachers unlock valuable conversations with people about emotions, behaviour, choices, strengths and opportunities.

The Bears, for example, is a simple set of highly expressive bear characters, without words. Similarly, Stones … have feelings too! is a set of stone characters who demonstrate the wide emotional range that humans experience—all the way from shattered to ecstatic. Asking, ‘What is happening?’ to a bear or stone character displayed on a particular card, can help people put their own feelings into words.

Similarly, in The Wrong Stone, a picture book written by Russell Deal, readers meet a little stone who thinks he won’t be selected for inclusion in a wall because his shape is all wrong. Many readers will recognise their own feelings of being different or of not fitting in. They can also build empathy for others who may be feeling this way too. When they discover that the Wrong Stone has a special place in the wall, they may better understand that they too have strengths, and how important it is that everyone is valued and included no matter what their differences may be.

Cars ‘R’ Us uses the metaphor of a car to engage in conversations about choice and agency. Questions like ‘Who is in the driver seat?, ‘What fills your tank?’, or ‘What road are you taking?’ extend the car metaphor to help describe situations, feelings, body signals and behaviours. Most of all, this rich and very accessible metaphor can help children and adults alike strengthen their capacity to make empowering choices.

Other card sets published by innovative Resources such as Strength Cards for Kids and Funky Fish Feelings incorporate an observer character into each card in a metaphorical way. (The former uses a toucan and the latter, a seahorse.) This observer or witness character could represent a parent, teacher, sibling or best friend. In real life, not everyone has a toucan on their shoulder or in their playgroup, but asking questions about what the toucan is observing in the scene depicted on the card is an effective way of introducing the role of an observer into the conversation.

Choose from The Bears, Stones…have feelings too!, Funky Fish, Cars ’R’ Us, Can Do Dinosaurs, Strength Cards for Kids, Picture This and many more resources that use metaphors to enrich conversations about the important stuff in life—feelings, hopes, strengths, relationships, values, stories and goals.

All of the tools published by Innovative Resources have grown out of, or are compatible with, strengths-based practice. Also known as the ‘strengths approach’, this is a way of working that focusses primarily on strengths and hopeful possibilities. It does not ignore difficulties or challenges but the primary focus of this approach is focussing on the person’s hopeful pictures of the future, and the resources—both internal and external—that they can mobilise in support of their goals.

PaperWorks can be readily adapted for use within strengths-based frameworks that seek first and foremost to focus on ‘where to’ rather than ‘where from’, thus avoiding problem- or deficit-centred thinking and actions.

The taxi image is a perfect starting point for a strengths-based, solution-focused conversation about ‘where to’. This image gives many opportunities to broaden the conversation with questions about the fastest way of getting there, who else might be in the taxi, and what signs or landmarks the person can expect to see along the way.

Others, such as the torch, light bulb, brick and welcome mat can also be used to stimulate conversations about preferred futures. Facilitators can ask what the person might notice if things were different or when progress is being made or goals achieved.

A particularly rich vein of strengths, exceptions and resources can be unearthed by using the sparkling moments image. Facilitators can invite participants to write or talk about a moment of insight or delight; an incident—big or small—that caught their attention in a positive or inspiring way. This is such a simple, and yet such a rich way of inviting people to notice anything but the problem. Try it and feel how the atmosphere in the room changes almost instantly!

To take the conversation even deeper into the territory of uncovering strengths, the sparkling moments tool can be combined with other images, for example, the water tank (by asking such questions as ‘What fills your tank?’) or the brick tool (by constructing a ‘wall of strengths’, for example).

Once the person’s goals or hopeful pictures of the future have been given pride of place, several of the PaperWorks metaphors can be used to better understand what might be getting in the way.

While images like the boot and the elephant naturally lend themselves to naming issues, they do so from a ‘person-centered’ perspective. For example, the boot might be used to name unhelpful things that the person wishes to walk away from. This conversation can be given a ‘strengths’ twist by asking about helpful things the person wishes to walk towards, or by asking what strengths they may want to draw on as they leave certain things behind. The tank can identify what no longer serves them (‘What drains my tank?’) or the elephant might be used to name hidden issues that it may be useful to bring to light.

A Resource for Exploring our Darkest Moments