Are you a speech therapist working with children who have social communication challenges?
Do you struggle to truly connect with them?
Introducing SEST – Story Emotion Social Therapy!
Traditional approaches often feel like training kids to follow social scripts or inauthentic conversation ideas, which can hurt their self-esteem. SEST changes that. It lets children express their thoughts and feelings freely, solving problems their own way and through this, building real connections…between therapist and child, and child and parents.
With this innovative, research-backed approach, you’ll be among the first to truly understand a child’s full story—helping them navigate the social world authentically.
SEST encourages individuals to more fully communicate 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, recognizing the “wholeness” of the individual and accepting individuals for who they are in the moment. The SEST practitioner guides them in and through that moment while encouraging more open and meaningful communication and skill development. Assumptions of ability—at any moment or level—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 learn about storytelling alongside their children and ways to practice it together outside the therapy setting.
At the heart of the SEST 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 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 the child’s social and emotional development level, whether any speech issues exist, assess the language abilities of the child, listen to how they describe themselves and others in relation to the situation, etc. For instance, an SLP may notice that a child doesn’t take into consideration the situation and understand how context plays into what behaviors are expected or unexpected. Weaker social-emotional learning areas can then be addressed separately by the SLP (if trained in SEST) as a means to strengthen the child’s narrative/storytelling and overall social communication abilities.
It is important to understand that at no point within SEST 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 did you do this weekend?’” are not the teaching tools of SEST. Nor does SEST 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.
SEST is a means of exploration—shared exploration— of the facts of an event, our interpretations, considering whether the outcome was positive or negative, promoting the use of flexible thinking to consider other behaviors, other possible outcomes, etc. SEST is granular, responsive and designed to address the content and issue the narrative relates while encouraging the child to consider alternative interpretations. With any event or situation, there are the facts and our interpretations of the situation. SEST addresses the facts while encouraging children to consider multiple interpretations based on their needs and goals.
“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.”
—Esther Nahon, M.S., CCC-SLP, TSSLD, MINDINSYNC LLC, Nurturing Learning Through Language
“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.”
—Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD, author of Growing Feelings: A Kids’ Guide to Dealing with Emotions About Friends and Other Kids, and host of the Kids Ask Dr. Friendtastic podcast
SEST approach uses methodologies from:
Kids spend an enormous amount of time online
Kids age 8-12 spend 6 hours online per day, with teenagers at about 9 hours per day
Kids spend a vast majority of this time socially isolated with headphones on
How to communicate person-to-person is becoming increasingly difficult for kids
In-person interaction is increasingly stressful and problematic for kids, which is associated with increased isolation, loneliness, and anxiety
About 2.6 million children and teens suffer from anxiety, and this number increases annually
“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 …”
WholeStory Parent
Parent Testimonial
Gary Dick, Ph.D., is the mental health collaborator of Story Emotion Social Therapy. He is a professor at the School of Social Work in University of Cincinnati and has done psychosocial therapy for over 40 years. He believes the stories told in therapy provide understanding into one’s inner cognitive and emotional world.
