Guides
- Making History: A Social Worker’s Guide to Life Books
Examples of Family Stories When Writing Your Life Story Don't Forget Your Family. By definition your autobiography is about you, but don't hog all the spotlight. Don't forget to mention other family members, especially brothers and sisters. Life Story Writing Samples I Can Write Your Story There are many good biography and life story writers. Who you choose is entirely your decision. It comes down to style, ability, a good relationship, quality, satisfaction.and, yes, price. I'm fair and I will write your story. People don’t read the words. People read mind of a person who is writing behind the words. So, it helps to be honest when it comes to writing your own success story. I am big big fan of your writing style Henneke. Your success story truly inspires the aspiring writers. Thanks for sharing your insights.
An excellent guide for social workers on how to create a life strory book.
- LifeStoryWorks.org
A short life story can be an alternative to writing an obituary in advance. When the obituary is needed, all the facts of the life are already at hand. A life story can be composed for oneself or a relative or friend. It only needs to be a couple of pages long.
LifeStoryWorks.org website provides a very helpful guide on how to create a life story book from scratch.
Writing A Life Story
- Social Work Handbook: Life story for work children and young people in care
Guidance on life story work for social workers by Kent County Council (includes an example of a completed life story book)
- Life Story Work: A resource for foster carers, residential social workers, adoptive parents, and kinship carers, to support this work
A guide for carers explaining what life story work is and how they can contribute to it
Useful templates
1. A Life Story Book template for children who do not live with their birth family developed by Government of Western Australia
2. Life Story Book template for Aboriginal children developed by Family and Community Services
3. Generic Life Story Book template developed by Family and Community Services
4. Personal Life History book contains a template which is intended to be used as part of therapeutic life story work. As a 30 session brief psychotherapy tool, the Personal Life History Book is designed to help children reduce their transfer rates to new homes. The child’s distress is channeled into a personal record book of positive memories as well as traumatic ones. This enhances the sense of personal continuity and conscious access to mental rather than behavioral representations of past relationships. Any or all members of the child’s network may be included: birth parents, foster parents, caseworker, and extended family members. In addition to children in formal foster care, the Personal Life History Book is useful for: children of incarcerated parents, in the process of family reunification following foster care placement, in guardianship homes, and in homes with relatives.
Click here to view/download the workbook for children
Click here to view/download an accompanying manual
Example of completed life story books
Writing Life Story Examples
A completed Life Story Book by LifeStoryWorks.org
In life, I believe that everyone is affected by different individuals or situations that will forever hold significance in their lives. From my virtues to flaws, there is a specific person in my life that should be credited for the overall gentlemen that I have become over time. Since birth, my father has had the greatest influence on my life decisions because I analyze the hardships and sacrifices that he has gone through in order for me to have a better life than him. The hard and valuable lessons he has taught me have given me the power to conquer anything standing in my way.
In elementary school, every kid had a superhero that they wanted to be and perceive themselves as. At recess, while I would exuberantly slide down the slides and swing on monkey bars, the main names that would come into conversation were Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. In this time I would always find myself out of place. In my mind, I knew that my superhero did not fly, drive a nice car, or wear a mask or costume. The superhero I had in mind worked long hours to provide shelter. He also had great determination, used his “powers” to good deed, and tutored me on the value of education, family, hard-work, and discipline. Zeus mentioned in Hercules that “A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength in his heart.” In any situation I have found myself in, using my father and his strengths as a blueprint has helped structure me into the person I am today.
Superheroes’ go through many obstacles when they're trying to figure out who they truly are and how they’re going to affect their surroundings. In many situations they often have two different personalities. As Bruce Wayne was for private business, and Batman was for public saving, my father was sort of similar. Danny Brooks was this caring, hard-working, thoughtful guy to the world. And in my eyes, he was this terrifying (at least he was when I was five) monster who ...
Writing A Life Story Examples For A