The Counselor Portal is designed to generate therapeutic stories using AI, grounded in Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. By selecting the stage that best matches your client’s current developmental needs, the Portal creates personalized, age-appropriate stories that support emotional growth, self-understanding, and healing. Each story is crafted to resonate with the unique challenges and themes of the selected stage, offering a creative and engaging way to enhance the counseling process.

Considerations When Using Erikson’s Stages of Development with Story-Based Interventions:
 

• Match Developmental Stage, Not Just Age: Clients may function at a different stage than their chronological age due to trauma, life experiences, or delays.

• Key Conflict as Story Theme: Use the psychosocial challenge of the stage (e.g., Autonomy vs. Shame, Identity vs. Role Confusion) as the core narrative focus to promote insight and emotional processing.

• Stories as Safe Exploration: AI-generated stories provide a non-threatening way for clients to explore feelings, conflicts, and solutions.

• Revisit and Repair: Stories can help clients revisit earlier unresolved stages and work toward resolution in a gentle, creative way.

• Encourage Reflection: Use follow-up questions or drawing/writing activities to help clients connect story content to their own experiences.

• Culturally and Contextually Sensitive: Consider how the client’s cultural background or environment may shape how they relate to the story or developmental task.

• Flexibility in Use: Stories can be used in-session, as take-home reflection tools, or as a basis for family or group discussion.