This site came about due to my interest in improving life quality for older people and children where there is fragility. It is the life stories that we tell ourselves that matter. The themes we listen to in our life stories that have power. The site seeks to strengthen narratives that nourish and heal.

Most of the material offered has come from direct experience personally and professionally through my employment in adoption support social work.  The experience of watching Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s progressively damage my parents cognitive and physical abilities motivated much of the elderly section.  Press link below for article on this.

Rays Of Light by Natalie Salaman | Friends On The Shelf

Friends On The Shelf is a bi-annual independent magazine that publishes true stories that relate the ordinary and extraordinary stories we tell about our lives. Read more about it with the link.

The academic knowledge and training below have informed my work and many of the ideas for engagement and connection that are shown on this website. We all constantly borrow and build from each others contributions when we reach out to help, creating our own rich repertoires.  Wikipedia and You Tube are wonderful resources.  You will find links within this site to relevant sources of further information.  Trust and some faith in the process are all that is needed to apply suggestions in your life!

Qualifications and courses that have helped me approach the topics on the site are:

  • Advanced Certificate in Therapeutic Life Story Work [Richard Rose Method]
  • Diploma in Child Counselling Using the Arts  Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Psycho-Analytical Observational Studies   Tavistock Institute
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Social Studies and CQSW   Goldsmiths University
  • Diploma in the Montessori Teaching Method
  • Bachelor of Social  Science in Social Administration  Manchester University

Certificates:

  • Certificate in Child Counselling   Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education
  • Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
  • Certificate in Emotional Literacy Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education
  • Certificate in Play Therapy   Roehampton Institute
  • Certificate in Therapeutic Communication with children and Adolescents   Tavistock Institute
  • Therapeutic Communication with Children Course    British Association of Psychotherapy

Natalie Salaman