'When You Go' - A Therapeutic Parenting Story
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Saying goodbye is never easy — especially for children. Whether a foster sibling is being adopted, returning to birth family, or moving to a new home, those left behind often experience a quiet kind of grief that can be hard to explain.
When You Go is a therapeutic picture book designed to help children of all ages process those big feelings in a gentle, accessible way.
This course explores how to use When You Go with children aged 4 to 18 as a tool for emotional support during transitions. You’ll gain insight into the emotional impact of sibling goodbyes, learn how to read the story in a trauma-informed way, and explore practical strategies for helping children express their thoughts and feelings safely.
You’ll also be able to download a digital version of the story, which contains therapeutic questions to ask while reading, and guidance on when and how to use this story.
Whether you're a foster carer, adoptive parent, birth parent, or kinship carer, this course will help you sit beside your child in their sadness — and show them that love doesn’t end when someone goes. It just finds a new place to live.
If you're on our Free plan, you can buy the course if you wish.
If you're on any other plan, this course is included in your subscription.
If you decide to join our Paid plan, you'll start off with a 3-day trial before you are charged. You can complete this course during that period and download your certificate.
This was a beautiful story, that could be applied to so many different situations that children and their families face when they get to know someone and then they have to leave their lives.
maria
This was a very moving story. I feel it could be used in several situations.
Deborah
I am an adopter and have been a foster carer myself and now work with foster carers. "When you go" brought back all the emotions.
This will be so useful for any child (and adult) who is saying goodbye to someone who has been part of their life.
Margaret
If you're a foster carer or other professional working with children, this certificate is a record of your Continuous Professional Development (CPD).
CPD Minutes: 20
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Using the story and therapeutic questions, carers actively listen to children’s emotional responses to goodbyes, name their feelings, and validate their experience. This ensures that children’s voices and emotional perspectives are heard and respected.
The course equips carers to recognise and respond to emotional distress during transitions. It strengthens emotional safety, reducing risk of trauma-related behaviour (e.g., withdrawal, aggression) following a departure.
Emotional insecurity can lead to risk-taking behaviours like absconding. When You Go helps build a sense of emotional stability and security during transitions, reducing the likelihood of children running away or resisting placement changes.
This story promotes emotional wellbeing through trauma-informed storytelling. It helps carers support children’s mental health by normalising grief, encouraging expression, and fostering resilience during loss.
The course encourages creative leisure-based activities like memory boxes, drawings, and stories, helping children channel and process emotions through play, art, and meaningful rituals.
While this focuses on a foster child leaving, the emotional continuity fostered by memory-making and story reflects the importance of ongoing connection, mirroring the standard’s aim to maintain emotional ties with birth families and foster siblings.
The illustrations model a warm, safe, and emotionally responsive physical space — suggesting how carers can create and maintain a sense of home during goodbyes.
The story normalises departure as part of growth. It supports children to see changes as natural steps — helping them reflect, remember, and integrate transitions into their own growth and self-understanding.
This course builds carers’ trauma-informed parenting skills (especially around grief and change) using the story, therapeutic questioning, and reflective practices. It supports ongoing professional development.
