Significance of Histories

Last week my therapist asked me to write a timeline of my life showing significant occurrences; good and bad, until this year. My first thought was, wow that is the same thing as the History tool that we use in person centered planning.

I use this a lot with other people in my job. Not so easy to do for myself but I gave it a shot.

 

When using this with others I have always believed in it's usefulness. Now that I have used it to seriously look at my life, not just in training, I see how grand it can be. Any person using person centered planning skills/tools with others really would benefit from using each one on themselves first to understand the true impact it can have.

 

History tells us many things. I started with a simple timeline with significant occurrences and found myself scribbling little seemingly insignificant happy times all over the page. My history reminds me that despite the hard stuff I had a great life. I have so many people and great memories that I tend to forget about. The people and memories we share around those major events; good or bad, are what is important.

 

Histories show us what is important to people, where people have been, where they were the happiest, what contributed to the person they are today. Everyone has a story; a history/herstory. The little things we learn about people can be so powerful in helping them have a meaningful life in the present. Looking at someone's history and asking questions about different events can lead you to some great stories about their life that give you so much understanding about the person.

 

I will share my history with my therapist this week, she will learn much more about me. She can add it to the One Page Profile that I already shared with her to give her deeper understanding of who I am, where I come from, what makes me ME!

My history is my story and there are many more good chapters than bad...........the paper doesn't lie!