17th December 2021 In 2020, Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) approached Licketyspit to explore a collaboration: ‘When I heard more about Licketyspit all I could think about was how few tools we’ve had (in WA) based on joy and play and love and excitement and art and music and all of the thing to allow us to express emotions and not only get them out but also share them in a really meaningful way with the people we love.’ Marsha Scott CEO SWA In Feb 2021 Licketyspit introduced Storyplay to 30+ Women’s Aid Workers – who immediately understood how they could use this imaginary play-based approach and methodology – “(Storyplay is) a great way to create empathy and connect with a child …who may be unable to understand their feelings & responses / (of) helping Mums and children build a shared experience and address difficult issues” Women's Aid Workers Feb '21 SWA approached Scottish Government to support an innovative collaboration between Scottish Women' Aid and Licketyspit. Last week the first Women’s Aid workers –from Wigtown to Shetland - completed an intensive 5-week online Licketyspit Storyplay Training programme - with flying colours! Storyplay is not as easy as it looks. Learning to facilitate it is to embark on a journey of learning, self-reflection and bold experiment! The WA workers all described a similar experience, initially feeling out of [...]

29th September 2021 Licketyspit and Scottish Women’s Aid are excited to offer a free place on to our upcoming Storyplay training course to member Women’s Aid groups across Scotland. Following a very successful introductory session in February, Women’s Aid Storyplay Scotland will provide in-depth Storyplay training to Women’s Aid Workers to use Storyplay as an additional approach in their work with mothers, children and young people recovering from domestic abuse. Storyplay offers a children’s rights-based approach to social interaction and relationship building through structured, joyful, imaginary play. This highly developed, tried and tested approach and toolkit will support workers to work with mothers and children together, nurturing creativity, confidence, relationships, confident parenting, physical and mental wellbeing, resilience, love and happiness. Training will be led by Licketyspit’s Artistic Director Virginia Radcliffe, alongside skilled Licketyspit Lead-Actor-Pedagogues who will train you and support you in sessions with your clients. Evaluations of the Storyplay approach demonstrate that this is an empowering approach for participants and workers . Storyplay demonstrates  a consistently high impact on children and adults’ confidence, social skills, emotional literacy and resilience, and use & knowledge of language and introduces a rich way of playing that mothers and children can build into their lives. Workers will learn to facilitate a wide range of Storyplay activities, including group imaginary play, games, rhymes, songs and reflective drawing. You will also be supported [...]