The Guided Autobiography Method
Guided Autobiography or GAB has been researched and developed by Dr. James Birren over the past 40 years as a method for helping people document their life stories. You can read more about Dr. Birren and his lifetime work and legacy at The Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies. GAB shows how to organize, record, and share life experiences through a proven and effective technique.
Making Sense of Our Lives Through the Power and Practice of Story
The curriculum taught in The Story Guides signature course is based on the Guided Autobiography (GAB) method of documenting life stories as researched and developed by Dr. James Birren. Dr. Birren was the founding dean of the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC). Over the ensuing years, he has written three books on GAB and conducted numerous research projects into the impact of GAB, all the while traveling worldwide to present and expand GAB. Dr.Birren’s strong focus on life review and reminiscence emerged in educational and research activities to explore issues shaping adult development. The approach was powerful and the therapeutic results substantial as Birren documented in many research studies that he embarked on. GAB now 50 years young has evolved and is incorporated in many walks of life from holocaust survivors, prison inmates, hospice and end-of-life care workers, survivors of violence, adoptive families, and nursing home residents. Gab has evolved into a dynamic, flexible format used in lifelong learning, in counseling and psychotherapy and, recording legacy life stories.
The following is a link to a short autobiography by Dr. James E. Birren, “How Do I Think I Got Here?” Page 96.
As trained and certified Guided Autobiography instructors, Leigh and Lily lead participants through themes that tackle the richest part of our history- themes such as family, our work, health, death and forks in the road that changed our life direction. We use priming questions with each class that help unlock and illuminate memories of events once known but often filed away and seemingly forgotten. These two-page personal essays are the building blocks to your Life Story Project. Each week these stories we have written outside of class are shared with the group. This is one of the cornerstones of Gab’s success. Writing and sharing life stories with others is an ideal way to find new meaning in life and to put life events into perspective. While connecting with one another on their journeys of self-discovery, participants feel enlivened by the group experience and gain a greater appreciation of their own lives and of the lives of others.
GAB Instructor Training
As trainers for the Birren Center we offer Guided Autobiography Instructor Training.
Can you envision teaching Guided Autobiography in your community? Perhaps you want to incorporate the GAB program into your practice. The next live online eight-week training session accepts students now and will be taught by Instructor Trainers Leigh & Lily. These classes fill up quickly, and space is limited to ensure a personalized experience and a small group setting for maximum learning.
You can find the full description here. Sessions are now forming and you can register for the winter class.
Instructor Training Classes will be online through Zoom.
Fee": $600 US plus $21 transaction and fees.
Please check The Birren Center website for other sessions and for future classes, or contact us below.
What people are saying
“GAB showed me how to dive deep into my experience of an unprecedented time, and offered a format to safely share it. It also gave me a community of others who are doing the same yet in their own unique way. The gifts of GAB far exceed the autobiographical writing I have created- I laughed, I cried, I came to know myself and others in a new way. Thank you”.”
— Crystal B-British Columbia, Canada