Challenges and Opportunities of Using Digital Storytelling as a Trauma Narrative Intervention for Traumatized Children

Abstract

This article address the challenges and opportunities of implementing a web-based Digital Storytelling (DS) curriculum to supplement the trauma narrative component of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) for traumatized youth, ages 9-17, receiving mental health services at a rural domestic violence (DV) agency. Digital storytelling, as the term suggests, combines storytelling with technology that integrates a mixture of digital images, text, audio narration, and music. Ultimately, implementing the DS curriculum empowered youth to process and develop their trauma stories in a multi-sensory, accessible and coherent manner. In doing so, they gained tools (writing, narrating, illustrating, and ultimately assembling their own stories) to form adaptive responses regarding their family violence experiences in its immediate aftermath and possibly over time. Agency implications are discussed regarding training, technical, and confidentiality issues related to the implementation of a web-based DS curriculum.