Story Therapy: Healing Anxiety and Speech Issues in Children Through Fairy Tales

Story therapy is a modern method in practical psychology that essentially involves healing with fairy tales. It is not meant for physical ailments like bronchitis or the flu, but rather for emotional, behavioral, and even speech problems. For each specific situation, appropriate fairy tales are selected or specially crafted.

Using the metaphorical language of fairy tales, a psychologist can conduct diagnostics and gather information about a child’s life, state, value system, strategies for resolving complex or conflict situations, attitudes towards various events, and much more. Alternatively, the focus can be on prevention and the developmental opportunities that fairy tales offer.

What is Story Therapy?

Today, the method of story therapy is very popular. Elements of story therapy can be found in development center classes, training sessions, and individual counseling.

It is a mistake to think that this method is only suitable for children. Rather, it can be said that the lower age limit for its application is 4-5 years. While it is enough to immerse a preschooler in a fairy tale, a teenager can be offered therapy in the form of a detective story, parable, anecdote, fable, or myth. Even adults can benefit from this from time to time.

How Does It Work?

As a rule, parents turn to a psychologist not for a method, but for a solution to a specific problem. If the use of story therapy is indeed appropriate, then work with the child can be carried out in different ways.

In some cases, an existing fairy tale (folk or authorial) is selected; in others, the psychologist and the young client create a fairy tale together; in others, the child is asked to create a fairy tale independently.

The immersion in the fairy tale reality happens carefully, as if surreptitiously. The child emotionally engages in the plot, puts themselves in the place of the hero or heroes, learns to analyze actions, brings new experiences into reality, and integrates them, passing a certain life lesson. Moreover, this lesson is not imposed or given “directly,” but acquired through joint subtle interaction with the adult psychologist. Such work does not tolerate haste, insincerity, and is carried out in a dosed manner.

During the session (consultation), it is possible to act out episodes of the fairy tale, draw, and create various objects endowed with symbolic functions and designed to help the child cope with their difficulties in the real world.

When Might You Encounter a Fairy Tale in a Psychologist’s Office?

If your child experiences emotional and behavioral difficulties—anxiety, fearfulness, aggression, or capriciousness.
If your child has encountered difficulties in communicating with peers or has been traumatized by an event or relationship.
If your child has problems with speech development.

Story Therapy and Speech Development

In speech therapy practice, story therapy is widely used to correct a child’s speech. During the game, the child is asked to take on the role of a character, come up with their own text, choose intonation, and timbre. This approach liberates the child, as preschoolers very easily adopt the behavior and actions of others. The child simply plays, without thinking about what task the leader has set for themselves.

In everyday communication, both children and adults typically use a certain set of words, expressions, and intonations. In a fairy tale game, the vocabulary expands, and the child explores their voice and its possibilities. It even happens that during story therapy sessions, children begin to use very bright and rich speech patterns that were not previously in their lexicon.

Choosing the Right Fairy Tale

Commentary from child psychologist Natalia Masyukevich, host of the “Useful Fairy Tales” program of the children’s and parents’ recreation project “Fairy Tale Greek Summer”:

“If it is customary in the family to read fairy tales to the child, this is already a huge benefit for the development of their memory, attention, thinking, imagination, speech, aesthetic feelings, emotional sphere, and the formation of value orientations.”

Here are a few rules for choosing fairy tales:

Age Appropriateness: The first guides to the fairy tale world for young children are short fairy tales about animals. They introduce children to the lifestyle, “characters” of the heroes, and give an idea of the interaction between different representatives of nature. By the age of 3.5-4 years, it is time for magical fairy tales. Imagination gains strength, the child is interested in transformations, and they are ready to comprehend a more complex plot.
Parental Acceptance: If a fairy tale causes rejection in an adult, it is better to postpone it or replace it.
Using the Fairy Tale as an Invitation to Dialogue: Sometimes, it is enough to have a story read or told by a parent for the feeling of fear to subside, for the child to stop biting their nails, or to cope with loss.
Variety: The more fairy tales a child hears, and the more different the heroes in them are, the broader their understanding of life, relationships, and ways out of difficult situations will be.
Happy Ending: It is important for children to understand and feel that everything will be fine for the heroes. This does not mean that fairy tales with a tragic ending should necessarily be rewritten. It is important to avoid intimidation and instilling a sense of hopelessness.

Perhaps the most beloved and memorable will be fairy tales created by a parent specifically for their child. Try to create them. For a problem or just like that… Together with the child or specially for them… The main thing is to have kind fairy tales in life.

If you are set on embarking on the path of solving children’s difficulties with the help of a fairy tale, familiarize yourself with the basics of story therapy, realize your own limitations and possibilities. Be careful, or better yet, trust a professional.

For more information, you can visit the Psychology Today website.