Lifeline

The Lifeline helps to understand more about your history and allows to see how events
in your life have contributed to the development of the person that you might be today.
It helps to give a good overview so that together we can start to choose which parts of
your life we need to explore in further detail. We can identify patterns and make
connections between different events and particular traits you may have identified in
yourself.

For the individual doing the exercise, it enables you to look at the experiences in your
life from a more objective, birds eye point of view. Having lived your life, it may seem
perfectly ordinary to you, however, it’s completely different to my life, and everyone
else’s. Doing this exercise may remind you of events you have forgotten or don’t deem
as significant.

How to:
Draw a horizontal line across a blank sheet of paper. This line represents the passing of
time. The origin in the left corner is the day you were born. As you consider your life, mark
significant life events on your lifeline, marking the positive experiences above the line, and
negatives below the line. You could make the lines longer or place the experiences higher or
lower on the graph to demonstrate the intensity of the experience. You can personalise the
way you do this exercise to suit you. You may wish to choose different colours for different
themes. You could draw pictures or add particular emotions that were present at different
stages in your life. You could either add events as you remember them, or you could go
through in date order and try and complete the lifeline for every stage in your life. Ensure
you include as much detail as possible, as though you were trying to replay your entire life to
a stranger.

E.g.

Once you have completed the lifeline go through the following questions to provoke
further thought about the exercise.

1. How do you feel having completed the lifeline?

2. Have you recognised any patterns in the events?
3. Which events feel the most significant?
4. Have you been able to pinpoint periods in your life that have caused/contributed
to personality traits?
5. Have you been surprised by anything that’s come out of doing the exercise?