“Everyone who lived to a ripe old age has a fascinating story to tell and this story informs the way they live their final years” – Patricia Edgar

Reminiscence, Life review and Life stories are all considered therapeutic processes that promote self-acceptance and improve one’s health and well-being. These therapies have all been shown to improve psychological well-being and lead to overall improvements in life satisfaction, loneliness and depression.

Here is a brief explanation for each method to assist you in choosing which would suit you best.

Reminiscence is an unstructured method of storytelling used to communicate others and recall past events and enhance positive feelings. It occurs either individually or within a group and is often assisted by memory prompts such as music, pictures and videos to encourage and stimulate earlier memories.

Life Review is more structured approach introduced by Butler in 1963 and covering chapters within a person’s lifespan. As Erikson suggested as we near the end of lives it’s completely natural to want to look back and consider our achievements and success, resolve past conflicts and unfinished business, grieve our losses and gain a sense of completion and meaning.

A Life story is created with the intention of assisting health care workers to provide individual and person centred care for our family members and loved ones. It enables staff to see beyond the person they are caring for now so they can develop relationships and meaningful engagement. A life story is especially beneficial when caring for a person with dementia.

Visit our website to explore your life story options in more detail.

Regardless of the method chosen, reviewing one’s life assists us to draw on our personal strengths and abilities, recognise how we’ve coped through difficult times in the past able and enable us to better deal with the present. The opportunity to share our stories, our joys and experiences of life bring inner peace and contentment to our lives. In the past family members spent more time together and were able to share their stories, unfortunately this is no longer the case and external support is required to facilitate this process.

Bibliography

Azcurra, D. (2012). A reminiscence program intervention to improve the quality of life of long-term care residents with Alzheimers Disease. Alzheimers, 34(4), 422-433. doi:10.1016/s10902-011-9270-x

Butler, R. (1963). The life review:An interpretation of reminiscence in the aged. . Psychiatry, 65-70.

Clarke, A., Hanson, E.J.,and Ross, H. (2003). Seeing the person behind the patient: enhancing the care of older people using a biographical approach. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 12, 697-706.

Edgar, P. (2013). In Praise of Aging. Australia: The Text Publishing Company.

Erikson, E. (1982). The Life Cycle Completed, a Review. New York/ London: Norton.

Glasser, W. (1972). The Identity Society (revised ed). New York: Harper & Row.

Kunz, A. (2007). Transformational Reminiscence. New York: Springer Publishing.

Schmotkin, D. &. (2012). Happiness and Suffering in the Life Story: An Inquiry into Conflicting Expectations Concerning the Association of Percieved Past and Present Subjective Well-Being in Old Age. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(3), 389-409. doi:10.1007/210902-011-9270-x