Finish—or Change—the Story

How to use it

1. Choose a scene that feels interesting or neutral enough.
2. Tell, draw, act, or arrange one possible continuation.
3. Try a different ending, add information, change the problem, or leave the story unfinished.
4. Pass or stop if a scene feels uncomfortable.

Reflection prompts

• What other possibilities could fit this scene?
• What choice or support might a character want without teaching a lesson?

Facilitator guidance

Invite multiple endings and tolerate ambiguity, humor, repetition, refusal, and no resolution. Do not steer the story toward disclosure, confession, forgiveness, moral correction, or a preferred coping response; ask only open questions grounded in what the child created.

Adaptations & accessibility

• Offer sentence starters, picture choices, puppets, AAC, or collaborative drawing.
• Use fantasy, setting-only, or low-stakes scenes.
• Allow the child to change every character and premise before continuing.

Review considerations

Licensed play-therapy review required before use; prompts must remain non-leading and must not turn symbolic stories into assumed biography, trauma disclosure, or moral testing.