Guided Autobiography Workshop

The Guided Autobiography Workshop offers a thematic approach to writing about one’s life that was developed by the USC professor, James Birren. It consists of 10 weekly sessions of two and a half hours each. Second Half Connections instructors have been trained and certified to teach this course by the Birren Center.

Each week a theme such as "The Major Branching Points of your Life" is introduced and discussed with specific questions aimed at stimulating memories. Classes include writing experiences to help people, even those who have never written about themsleves before, get comfortable with writing.

Each person writes about the week’s theme outside of class but brings a maximum of two written pages to share. During the second hour of each class, the participants break down into facilitated small groups and each person reads his/her story to the others and receives supportive feedback.

Rather than a how-to-write course, the focus of this class is to provide a supportive group environment in which people re-capture their memories and explore together the meaning and significance of life events.   It offers an opportunity not only to review one’s individual experience but also to learn from and bond with others and be inspired to craft life experience into meaningful story.


EASTSIDE

WomanSpirit Center
January 9th - February 27th (8 sessions) Mondays 1:30 - 4:00 p.m.
HER Conference Center, 1150 114th Avenue SE, Bellevue, WA 98004
Click here to register.

SEATTLE

Northwest Center for Creative Aging
January 11th - March 14th (10 sessions) Wednesdays 2:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Skyline at First Hill, 729 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA
Limited places open to the public. (Email joanne@secondhalfconnections.org for availability.)

Interested in Providing this Class?

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

~ Soren Kierkegaard

"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

~ Mark Twain

"Retirement as we have known it, is in the midst of being displaced as the central institution in the second half of life."

~ Marc Freedman

"What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death."

- Dave Barry

"The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves, they find their own order ... the continuous thread of revelation."

~ Eudora Welty

"It is never too late to become what you might have been."

~ George Eliot

"It's not the arrival, it is the journey that matters."

~ Montaigne

"That which youth found and had to find outside of itself, in the second half of life must be found within."

~ C.J. Jung

"Why are we so obsessed with what we lose as we age and unclear about what we gain?"

~ Victor Frankl

People are saying ...

"How great - a class that lets you think!"

"Truly a class worth taking - thought provoking, safe environment to share one's life."

"Don't worry about whether or not you can write. Only constructive helpful comments are allowed."

"Joanne's skillful guidance of our sharing of life's stories helped us learn more about where we came from and who we are."

"Taking this was just the impetus I needed to start the process of writing about my life."

"A very supportive setting to explore, talk and write about life's journey. I realized how connected all of us are. I will cherish this experience for years to come."

"I really enjoyed the opportunity to explore various events and experiences in my life through the structure of this class."

"I've loved this class. The other members write so eloquently and beautifully. I've been challenged substantially in an activity I want to continue to develop."

"The class prompted the specific writing of memories which helped me better understand those memories."