Therapy Timelines

A therapeutic timeline is a useful tool often utalised in my therapy room and can be used to explore issues as well as gain an oversight into our own individual story.    This timeline can be completed with a qualified counsellor/therapist, who can support you through the process or if you feel you are ready to complete this on your own, I recommend discussing it with your therapist and allowing them to support you whilst assisting with any further exploration.   

The concept is simple, remember the timelines you drew in history class back in the day?  Plotting all the significant events by date. In this exercise you will be plotting your life.     Rather than write events, you may wish to be creative and draw symbols to represent. These symbols may represent people or places and have emotional meaning to you. 

Start with the day/year you were born and continue where you are presently.   Take care to note anything significant that may have happened.  This part of the exercise may seem easy, there may be many contributers you feel have obviously impacted who you are and how you act today – events such as marriage, awards, deaths, moves, illness, career change.    Once you’ve plotted these, take a moment to notice how you are feeling.    What’s going on for you?

Next plot down any less obvious events that may have contributed to what’s going on for you and who you are now.  These might be comments from others, periods of low or good mental health, arguments with loved ones, frightening experiances, wonderful experiances, moments of achievements, awards.   

Again take a moment to notice how this feels.   What does this complete picture feel like?  Does anything feel particularly significant?  How have these events/moments shaped you?

This exercise can be adapted to the individual client’s situation and I’ve worked with clients who have focused on particular areas such as an ‘Anxiety Timeline’ or a ‘Sex Timeline’ and their journey has benefited from the act of reflection and the overview the timelines provided.