Felt lost in 2024? Reminiscing can help start the new year with purpose

One of the hardest questions to answer is a deceptively simple one: who are you? But this is precisely the question that “reminiscence” or “life review” therapies, which draw on autobiographical memory, looks to answer. It’s normal to think about our past or to relive memories in conversations with friends, but it is rare to do so in a considered, intentional way.

In 2022, Jane Fonda spoke about conducting a life review after turning 60, telling Glamour, “it totally changed the way I thought about myself and about how I wanted to live the last third of my life”.

But whether you’re 60 or 16, looking backwards can be a useful exercise in building purpose and meaning into your present and future.

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What is reminiscence therapy?

Reminiscence therapy is an umbrella term that encompasses a range of therapeutic approaches.

David Hallford, a senior lecturer at Deakin University’s School of Psychology, says most therapy, “either implicitly or explicitly draws on memory”.

“But reminiscence therapy is particularly focused on retrieving, reflecting on and reframing experiences into our understanding of ourselves.”

Broadly speaking, he says reminiscence focuses on specific themes, like relationships, loss or challenges faced. Life review, on the other hand, is about a more systematic approach to reflecting on experiences across a whole lifetime.

And reminiscence is about more than just mapping the big beats in our lives.

Sunil Bhar, a professor of psychology at Swinburne University of Technology, says: “It’s not simply about documenting things, like where someone lived or who they married, where they end up with what is essentially a resume of their life.

“We’ve discovered that what’s therapeutic about going back over someone’s life is not what they did, but who they are.”

Reminiscence, he says, can help people answer the tricky question of “who are you?”

“The most common answer to [this question] is, ‘I am a student’, ‘I am a daughter’, ‘I’m a son’; you talk about yourself in terms of the roles that you played in your life,” he says.

“So reminiscence is a way of getting to the values that have been driving those roles and those life decisions.”

What are its benefits?

Research on reminiscence therapy has focused mostly on its benefits for older people, where it’s been shown to improve things like depression and life satisfaction. For people with dementia, reminiscence therapy can help create a sense of agency and improve mental health and cognition. Research has also found it can lessen the effects of anxiety and depression and that it can improve quality of life for cancer patients.

However, an emerging body of research shows that reflecting on our lives can be beneficial at any age.

Hallford’s research focuses on the benefits of life review, particularly for young adults. He thinks a lack of research is partly for cultural reasons, where there is the “preconception of sitting around and thinking about the good old days as a task of older adulthood, when we are not necessarily completing as many big life tasks like getting our careers started or having kids”.

But the benefits of reminiscence therapy in older adults are much the same for younger ones. Research has shown reminiscence therapy to improve levels of self-esteem, confidence, optimism and life satisfaction.

One small study led by Hallford this year found guided recall and interpretation of autobiographical memories helped improve young adults’ self-perception and views of others.

Used in clinical settings, it has also been shown to reduce depression and anxiety, where it’s often part of a program involving cognitive behaviour therapy.

Three great questions to ask

• A question professor Sunil Bhar likes to ask in his practice is, tell me the story of your name. This simple question can be a gentle launching pad into the story of someone’s life – from their cultural heritage to their family history.
• Another good exercise, professor David Hallford says, is to talk about a time you overcame a challenge. “You’re not only disclosing and building a bond with someone else, but you’re also reinforcing and activating in your own mind this idea of what that means about yourself,” he says.
• Other prompts, Bhar suggests, can revolve around things that have been special to them, such as, tell me about a person in your life who has had an enduring effect on you?

How it works

Typically, reminiscence therapy is conducted by a psychologist, either in a group setting or one on one. To explore this kind of therapy, you can chat to your GP, counsellor or psychologist.

But you can still reap the benefits by reflecting on the past in a less structured way with friends or family.

“There is a sense in the literature that maybe what is therapeutic about reminiscence therapy isn’t the outpouring of memories, but really it’s having someone listen,” says Bhar.

“It brings the idea that what we’re really after is a human connection, and reminiscence is simply a way of eliciting that.”

Hallford says journaling or voice recordings can help with this.

It’s also common to use physical objects or music to prompt memories. Bhar says photographs can be a good starting point for talking about the past.

So whether you’re spending the break alone or with friends or family, consider going through an old album, or talking about what matters to you most. It might help crystallise who you are.

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