A life story is a narrative technique that consists of elaborating an autobiographical aspect for therapeutic or research purposes.  The basic procedure consists of evoking and structuring the memories of a person’s life through their own gaze. In life history, not only objective data such as dates and places should be reflected, but above all, information related to the subjective perspective, such as values, ideas, projects, life approaches, social relationships, etc.

Four fundamental aspects of the person’s life are:

• The most important relationships: family, friends, colleagues with whom the person has a special relationship.
• Favorite places. The current address, the town or region of origin, places you have visited.
• Animals that they like to remember. Life experiences, travel, etc.
• Current interests, or even plans

Usually, the life story is built between the main subject of the biographical story and a therapist or researcher, who collects the information through an oral interview that helps to structure it. 

Structure of a Life Story

The goals of a Life Story differ from whether it is research or psychotherapy. However, the life stories not only allow the person to become famous but also reveal information about the realities experienced by many countries or contexts.

The structure of a life story can vary, but the question is that it adapts to the proposed work of objectives in each case. Here are the main criteria:

1. Introduction: The person gives a brief overview of his life in the start of story.
2. Indicate what are the critical events: It is usually asked about eight critical events: first personal memory, an event from childhood, another from adolescence, another from adult life, the peak of life (the best moment), the ground point (the worst) and period of inflection (moments of change, for better or worse), in addition to another critical moment.
3. Positive and negative influences: Identify people, groups, or institutions with a positive or negative impact.
4. Life challenge: Identify what has been the biggest challenge you face. How you handled it and how you fixed it.
5. Description of the cultural and family stories: these can be the most influence for example, the comments of the group of friends about the family discourse on drugs or the favorite series, etc.
6. Values ​​and personal ideology: Simple, direct questions about a person’s value system and how it has changed with age.
7. Vital issue: asks about the central message, the subject on which he thinks he has been occupying himself throughout his narrative.
8. Search for alternative futures: Two possible futures, one negative and positive, consistently from a realistic position.
9. Other elements that the person deems appropriate

The main objective of “creating a life story” is to enhance ones memory, evoking it to structure it, and thus reinforcing identity, the feeling of personal integrity, especially in cases of the elderly.

With Can’t Forget Me, you can create a life story while choosing personalized care to coherence with the life project. Let’s allow family and friends to share their life memories securely.