title: Once upon a time there was an angry lion: using stories to aid therapeutic care with children.
abstract: Storytelling is a useful relationship-building tool to use with children, as demonstrated by the work of 'Johnny' and the author, his nurse. Five stages of narration - purpose, backstory, pivotal events, evaluation of effects and summary - encourage children to recognise and accept feelings such as anger, grief, shame and guilt in a safe way and make small steps towards change. It is feasible to start engaging children with simple everyday stories, and then go on to develop the tale so that the nurse and the child make additions as required.
authors.affiliation: University of Wolverhampton, Walsall campus.
authors.forename: Dean-David
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Holyoake
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D033262:Narration; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010371:Pediatric Nursing; D000078329:Workforce