The tree of life concept is pretty simple and straightforward. It is a visual metaphor in which a tree represents your life and the various elements that make it up past, present, and future.The Tree of Life is a recovery approach based on narrative theory that focuses on culture, heritage, spirituality, strength and hopes. It introduces psychological ideas of strength, resilience and relationship.
The Tree of Life uses a tree as a metaphor for someone’s life; different parts of the tree represent different aspects of an individual’s life. For example, the roots are about where we come from both physically and in terms of the values and commitments that influence us.
The trunk represents our skills and resources, the branches our hopes and dreams. Leaves are those people who are important and influential in our lives. The fruits are the gifts we have received from others – not necessarily material; these could simply be gifts of love and tolerance.
The Tree of Life invites us to tell a different or preferred story of ourselves, outside of the influence of problems. This can be a difficult story to tell especially in problem-focused mental health services. In this workshop day we will explore different stories of ourselves by creating our own trees and sharing our trees to make a forest built on our collective strengths and resources.
The sharing of our trees is an important part of the workshop based on the idea in Narrative Therapy that ‘stories told are stories lived ‘ and that our stories will develop more richly when shared and responded to by others. After we have created our forest of trees we will look at the storms of life and how the forest can respond to these storms as hazards that we all face together.
When the storms pass we will end the day with a celebration to appreciate how we have all contributed to each other’s’ stories.
By labeling these parts, you not only begin to discover (or perhaps rediscover) aspects of yourself shaped by the past, but you can then begin to actively cultivate your tree to reflect the kind of person you want to be moving forward.
Just as we learned the stories of our lives are the events we choose to highlight and contextualize, in this post we will learn how to discover and highlight alternate paths through our past–which in turn create new horizons in our future.
The Tree of Life is a hopeful and inspiring approach to working with children, young people and adults who have experienced hard times. This methodology was co-developed through a partnership between Ncazelo Ncube (who was working at REPSSI at the time) and David Denborough.
HOW TO DRAW YOUR TREE OF LIFE:
Start by drawing a tree with the roots, grass and branches. Keep the drawing minimal at first, as the words that you will write are more important. You can always start with a draft version and then draw it again later.
The Roots
Write down where you come from on the roots. This can be your home town, state, country, etc. You could also write down the culture you grew up in, a club or organization that shaped your youth, or a parent/guardian.
The Ground
Write down the things you choose to do on a weekly basis on the ground. These should not be things you are forced to do, but rather things you have chosen to do for yourself.
The Trunk
Write your skills and values on the trunk. I chose to write my values starting at the base of the trunk going up. I then transitioned into listing my skills. For me this felt like a natural progression from roots to values to skills.
The Branches
Write down your hopes, dreams, and wishes on the branches. These can be personal, communal, or general to all of mankind. Think both long and short term. Spread them around the various branches.
The Leaves
Write down the names of those who are significant to you in a positive way. Your friends, family, heroes, etc.
The Fruits
Write down the legacies that have been passed on to you. You can begin by looking at the names you just wrote on leaves and thinking about the impact they’ve had on you and what they’ve given to you over the years. This can be material, such as an inheritance, but most often this will be attributes such as courage, generosity, kindness, etc.
Tip: if your tree is pretty crowded by this point, perhaps try drawing some baskets of fruit at the base of your tree and label them accordingly there.)
The Flowers & Seeds
Write down the legacies you wish to leave to others on the flowers and seeds.
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