Everyone Has a Story to Tell: Guided Autobiography

By Denise Forte

Denise Forte, LCSW, has been helping clients make sustainable changes in their lives for over 15 years.

Take a moment and think about the experiences that have made you who you are, the events --- large or small --- that have occurred over the course of your life and caused you to change directions and start on a new path. If you were writing your memoir using the Guided Autobiography method, these experiences, called Branching Points, would be your starting point.

Guided Autobiography is a structured way of organizing and learning from one's history. It is a particularly useful means of helping with transitions, enhancing personal growth and development, developing a sense of belonging, understanding where you are in life now, and exploring possibilities for the future.

A Guided Autobiography group meets for 10 weekly sessions. After exploring the Major Branching Points, group members write portions of their life stories every week, with each week's writing centered around a particular theme. The themes explored are: Family, The Role of Money, Major Life Work or Career, Health and Body, Sexual Identity, Experiences with and Ideas about Death and Dying, Spiritual Life and Values, and Goals and Aspirations.

Group members are initially given information about autobiography/memoir writing and then are led through a series of exercises designed to stimulate creativity and increase self-awareness. They learn tools to use at home, and priming questions are reviewed to get them started on writing about the following week's theme. Everyone writes two pages on the week's topic at home and brings what they have written to share at the next the group.

Guided Autobiography group members are often surprised at how easy the writing comes and how well written their stories are. There are several explanations for this. The exercises, tools and group support encourage recollection of stories that are genuine and come from the heart. When you hear others sharing their memories and stories, it helps you remember forgotten details of your own life, which when included in your writing makes for richer and more descriptive stories. Feedback from others provides a means of seeing your own life stories through another's eyes, in a different light and with a broader perspective.

Certain themes frequently emerge and particular incidents revisited, no matter what topic is being explored. This can provide insight and depth of understanding about your life that was not previously available. As one participant said, "I know what my issues are, but seeing them written down like this, over and over again, really brings it home."

Rather than a series of random events, participants now see a life story with a meaningful plot. Having this new perspective helps many people decide whether they want to continue with and expand that plot line, or bring closure to the old plot and make the necessary changes to create a new one.