The Autobiography Process in Gestalt Therapy: A Powerful Self-Discovery Tool
- Cyril Prince
- Aug 15
- 6 min read
Autobiography is a beautiful process where an account of a person’s life is written by that person. A profound activity to remember and document the different stages, stories, values and lessons of life.
For a reader, autobiography books are a great read as well. Depending on the area of interest, one can pick up an autobiography book of a legend in that particular field, not just for the person’s story, but also to understand the underpinnings of that particular industry’s evolution and history. The reader might even get information on culture, traditions and a feel of the timelines in that particular region where the autobiographer sets the stage.
What is the Autobiography Process in Gestalt Therapy?
Just like how effective an autobiography book can be, The Autobiography Process in Gestalt Therapy is a process of asking the client to share their story, about their life in general, in relation to how they perceive it in the present moment.
When to Use the Autobiography Process in Therapy?
The Autobiography process is one of my favourite processes. I usually initiate this process after 2 or 3 sessions with my clients. But there’s no rule that this can’t be done in the very 1st session or whenever the Coach/Therapist and client want to get to this process.
How the Autobiography Process Works
The process is simple. The Coach/Therapist establishes rapport with the client, creates a safe space for the client to share, sets a timer for 10 or 20 minutes, and then asks the client to talk about their life.
If the client gets stuck, the Coach/Therapist can gently nudge the client with a question or suggestion, so that the client is able to continue on with their narration.
Once the timer runs out, the Coach/Therapist then presents their observations back to the client, without judging the story, the style of narration, the morality of the content/incidents, the characterisation, grammatical interpretation, or beliefs.
Key Areas of Observation in Gestalt Autobiography
The Coach/Therapist only presents the client’s:
Areas of life which the client shared within this Autobiography process: Do not bring up any past notes, conversations or previous (session) observations here.
Dominant area of life: The client largely spoke about that area. For example, health, money, work, children, neighbour, parent, etc.
Avoided area of life: There could be some areas of life that the client didn’t address at all. Of course, if the timer is set for 10 minutes or less, then it may not be possible to talk about every single area of life, impromptu. The goal is to bring these missed out areas to the client’s awareness.
Favourite words or quotes that the client kept using during the process: We all have our favourite words and/or quotes that we use in our everyday language, and it’s important to pay attention to such linguistic patterns. There’s usually a lot of information that can be unpacked within these words/quotes.
Any values that stood out: Things that are very important to the client are repeated frequently. For example, family, mental health, physical health, routines, material belongings, relationships, any particular emotion, solidarity, etc.
Facilitating Client Reflection and Self-Discovery
The Coach/Therapist can then ask the client how they felt about the process of narrating their autobiography, what they thought of the observations presented, if anything stood out for them, and any apt reflective questions that arise in the moment can be asked. This step helps the client explore their mind for connections and resolutions, if any, along with building a healthy consolidation about their sense of self.
The process may end here.
Advanced Creative Techniques for Deeper Insights
However, the Coach/Therapist can take it one step further and add creativity into the mix. I have listed down a few things that have worked for my clients:
Analyzing Past, Present, and Future Perspectives
Segregate the information into past, present and future, present it back to the client and then ask them for what are the key differences between the past and the present, and also the future and the present. The response to this holds weight to how the the timelines are being perceived.
Identifying Values Shifts and Conflicts
Look for any clash in values. For example, a childhood core value for one of my clients was ‘family comes first’, and now it is ‘money is the most important thing in the world’. Exploring ‘when’ and ‘how’ this shift from family to money manifested led to very powerful realisations for the client.
Examining Narrative Perspective and Emotional Framing
Present a “positive light” and “negative light” comparison. Some people, incidents, things, stories can fall either under the positive light or the negative light. How is the client choosing to share their story:
- Are they only sharing problems?
- Is everything in life picture-perfect?
- Do they cover up with positive statements after narrating a past traumatic experience? (This can certainly go deeper into exploring boundaries, self-image, dominant characters in life, etc. Definitely worth exploring)
- Do they constantly look at finding that stain in their almost-perfect life story? (Explore to understand themes of self-acceptance, guilt, forgiveness, sacrifice, self-image, etc.)
Additional Observation Techniques
Wins versus losses, what is life all about? Are they sharing only stories of victory or only stories of losses?
Do they flow from 1 topic to the next, or is it rushed, incomplete and chaotic? How does that reflect their life in the present moment?
Do they use phrases like, “there’s so much to say”, “I don’t know where to start”, “my life is not that interesting”, or any form of hesitation/avoidance right at the beginning? When this happens, I usually get my clients to narrate their latest experience with a movie/play they watched, or their experience of travelling to a place they visited recently, or by asking them some leading questions about their hobby. Once they start talking freely (from the body and not the mind), I facilitate the transition back into the Autobiography process.
How do they see themselves in these stories? Victim, hero, a member of the audience? And is that perspective consistent across all of their timelines and stories?
Best Practices for Therapists and Coaches
There’s no dearth of creative possibilities in the process of observations. Trying out what naturally comes in this process is usually the most effective of all strategies.
It’s important to stay curious, yet non-judgemental. It’s important to expertly note observations, yet be respectful while presenting it back to the client.
As a Coach, I constantly gauge my clients’ verbal and non-verbal response to make sure that none of what I share overwhelms them.
Self-Application: Using the Autobiography Process for Personal Growth
Now, if you’re reading this and you’re not a Coach or a Therapist, and you don’t have access to a Coach or a Therapist, but you want to experience this process, one good way to start is to journal (freely) everyday.
At the end of the journalling session, observe your language patterns and themes. It’s important to not judge yourself in the process. If in case you do find yourself judging your thoughts while journalling, then journal about that too. Be as present in the moment as you can while engaging in this process.
The Benefits: Integration and Wholeness Through Self-Awareness
This process helps to know where we are feeling stuck. When we verbalise thoughts, which is usually a key to a lot of the challenges we create in our minds, we are able to unpack the different parts of us. Some parts are a lot more dominant than other parts.
With this information, we are able to move into the next step, which is integration of parts (I will cover that in another blog post). And when we integrate different parts, we start to function as a whole, which is the key to making faster decisions, avoiding internal conflict as a result of developing clarity within, and improving the quality of relationships as a result of creating and maintaining boundaries.
Conclusion
Hope this process finds you a great deal of understanding about self, as it continues to help me understand and integrate myself. If you need any additional support, write to connect@elevatemind.in and I would love to answer any questions you may have.
