Tree of Life Narrative Therapy for This Hour

Adapt every line to the person in front of you, your formulation, and your protocol. A composite tree is a rehearsal, not a recording of a client, and it does not replace supervision or your crisis procedure. The hour is not a Dulwich or PHOLA training certificate. The 50-minute split, drawing stop, skip rules, and note line are clinician judgment for this hour, not Ncube (2006).

It’s 2:40. Sam has a pencil. You asked where he comes from and he named a kitchen in Lagos, not a diagnosis. That is the start of tree of life narrative therapy. It is not a doodle you interpret, and it is not the four narrative sheets you already keep for an externalized problem name.

Ncazelo Ncube’s 2006 paper, written from work with children in Southern Africa and later shaped with the Dulwich team, treats the tree as a way to build a second story first: skills, hopes, people, and gifts. Storms come after that safer ground exists, not as the opening move (Ncube, 2006). The Dulwich Tree of Life page records the same method as co-developed with David Denborough, now used with children, young people, and adults. You are running that sequence in an outpatient hour, not reprinting a camp day.

If the job this week is still an externalized name, an influence map, and a unique outcome, stop here and use the narrative therapy worksheets. Those sheets do a different job.

Run tree of life narrative therapy in four steps

Print the table. Do not add “bugs” to the first drawing. Ncube’s earlier camp version used bugs for problems, then moved problems into a later “when the storms come” conversation so children were not standing only in harm while they drew (Ncube, 2006). Keep that order.

Step	What you do	What you write	Stop rule
Tree of Life	Draw the six parts. Ask the prompt in the table. Offer your own tree first if they freeze.	Whose words are on each part	Do not start storms. Do not correct their metaphor.
Forest of Life	Hang the tree, or hold it up. Witness one thing you heard. If there is a group, they write one line they heard about a peer.	The witness line, in ordinary words	Do not harvest a strength they did not say.
When the storms come	Name hazards from the tree identity, then what they already do when weather hits.	The storm they named, and the response they named	Skip if the tree is empty or they are outside the window.
Certificates and song	Record skills, hopes, and people they named. A song they already know is enough.	What the certificate actually says	Do not write a pep talk they did not author.

Ncube’s Soweto day ran all four parts. That was a group day, not a 50-minute outpatient slot. Chair-side, this hour usually runs part one, and a thin forest if there is time. Put storms on the next hour. That split is your judgment, not a Dulwich timing rule. Compressing tree of life narrative therapy because the clock is loud is how a preferred story turns into a slogan.

A filled hour, not a blank tree

Sam is fictional. Adult outpatient. No current suicidal intent. You offered the tree. He did not pass. You did not interpret the drawing.

You did not applaud the stall. You asked how long the hope has lasted, and who else knows. That is the history question Ncube uses on the branches, not a goal you type while he is still drawing.

When this is not an art therapy tree of life

The pencil is real. Drawing is a scaffold for a second story, not scored art therapy.

You do not score the trunk. You do not read a missing leaf as abandonment. You do not name a diagnosis from the canopy. Those stops are chair-side, not a Dulwich scoring rule. The drawing is a place to stand so a second story can be told. If they want to decline the drawing and speak the six parts, that is still the exercise. Write the words. Leave the page blank.

A pretty tree with no story is a craft activity. Send it home only after they have said at least roots and trunk aloud. That send-home limit is yours, not a camp-day rule.

When you skip the drawing

Skip tree of life narrative therapy when a safety concern is already in the room. Use the risk process you already use. A tree is not a screen. That skip is your protocol, not Ncube’s outpatient rule.

Skip it when they pass. Curiosity that ignores a pass is still pressure.

Skip it when they are outside their window of tolerance, or when a leaf (a death, a leaving) floods the hour and they cannot come back to the trunk. Slow down. Honor the person. Do not open storms to “finish the model.” Window and flood calls are clinician judgment for this hour.

Skip it when the hour needs an externalizing conversation, not a metaphor. If the problem still has no name that is not them, that work lives on the narrative therapy externalization page. Do not hide that job inside a trunk.

Skip a war metaphor they did not ask for. “Beat the storm” sounds active. It also commits them to a fight they may not want. Ask what the weather costs before you let a battle onto the paper.

A course will not put the prompts in your mouth. If you want hours, a format, and a certificate name, that comparison is on the narrative therapy training checklist. Book it after you have drawn one tree in the room, not instead of drawing it.

What you write in the note

The chart does not need the tree redrawn. It needs the parts in their words, which step you actually ran, and which step you refused. That note line is your documentation judgment, not a payer or Dulwich chart rule.

A line that says “completed a tree of life exercise, client engaged” could sit on any chart. It does not show that you ran tree of life narrative therapy. Sam’s line will. You can see the kitchen, the bus, the stall, and the sister limit.

Do not paste the stall into the goal field. The branch was a hope with a history, not a contract. If you later want a goal, that is a different conversation, on a plan you build with them.

Printable worksheet

There is no gated PDF. Copy the fields. One line each. Walk tree of life narrative therapy in the room. Send home only the parts you finished.

References

• Dulwich. (n.d.). The Tree of Life. Dulwich Publications. https://dulwichcentre.com.au/the-tree-of-life
• Ncube, N. (2006). The Tree of Life Project: Using narrative ideas in work with vulnerable children in Southern Africa. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (1), 3-16. https://dulwichcentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/TOL-PAGE-UPDATETree-of-Life-by-Ncazelo-Ncube-Mlilo.pdf