journey through life reviews

Journey Through Life

Treatment center , lcsw.

Our Facility at a Glance

2656 South Loop West

Houston, TX 77054

• Beacon Health Options | Carelon
• Community Health Choice
• Molina Healthcare
• Superior HealthPlan
• Texas Children's

Qualifications

• Certificate from Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities International (CARF)

Specialties and Expertise

Top specialties.

• Behavioral Issues
• Family Conflict
• Anger Management
• Bipolar Disorder
• Coping Skills
• Dissociative Disorders (DID)
• Emotional Disturbance
• Impulse Control Disorders
• Medication Management
• Mood Disorders
• Oppositional Defiance (ODD)
• Peer Relationships
• Relationship Issues
• School Issues
• Self Esteem
• Self-Harming
• Sexual Abuse
• Spirituality
• Trauma and PTSD

Client Focus

Communities, i also speak, programs and services, treatment programs.

• Continuing Care
• Intervention

Out / Inpatient

• Intensive Outpatient Program

Types of Therapy

• Christian Counseling
• Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
• Culturally Sensitive
• Emotionally Focused
• Family / Marital
• Family Systems
• National Wraparound Implementation Model
• Person-Centered
• Play Therapy
• Positive Psychology
• Solution Focused Brief (SFBT)
• Strength-Based
• Structural Family Therapy
• Trauma Focused

Primary Location

Our Website

Nearby Areas

• Houston, TX

Journey Through Life PLLC

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About the Business

Don't hesitate to call Journey Through Life, PLLC in Raleigh, NC. We are committed to your satisfaction. Call us today. …

Location & Hours

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3722 Benson Dr

Raleigh, NC 27609

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Therapist worked with my teenage son for several months. After reaching out several times for any clue as to how his therapy was proceeding and what the adult support network should be doing, the therapist just did not return our emails and made no further therapy appointments. I understand that the things my son is dealing with are difficult, but to just ghost like this is unacceptable. Finding out that my son's councilor is also the founder of the company is also a little shocking, I would have thought he would be even more likely to not do something like this with his vested interest.

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‘My Window’ Review: An Out-and-Proud Trailblazer Finds Her Way

Melissa Etheridge’s limited run at New World Stages is a celebration of its smoky-voiced 61-year-old star, and contains some confessions, along with her hits.

• Share full article

By Laura Collins-Hughes

Not long into the second act of Melissa Etheridge’s new Off Broadway show , she tells a funny, sexy, completely charming tale of falling in love with a married woman in the late 1980s, and pairs it, playfully, with a gorgeous version of her 1995 song “I Want to Come Over.”

Discreetly — no names — she recalls what a blast she and that partner and their showbiz friends used to have together in 1990s Los Angeles, in the heady early days of Etheridge’s rock fame. Then she mentions cannabis, which she didn’t enjoy at the time.

“It always made me feel like everyone knew I was hiding something, you know?” she said on Friday, the second night of a 12-performance run at New World Stages . “Like they could all see this sadness that I was hiding.”

In an almost solo show that wants very much to be a good time for the audience, and a kind of celebration of its smoky-voiced 61-year-old star, suddenly here is a confession of personal vulnerability — spoken, not sung. It turns out to be valuable foreshadowing, because there is some deep, dark sadness in “ Melissa Etheridge Off Broadway: My Window — A Journey Through Life .” And mostly, amid some staggeringly beautiful renditions of songs, that sadness is well camouflaged.

Written by Etheridge with her wife, Linda Wallem Etheridge, and directed by Amy Tinkham, the show recounts the story of Etheridge’s life in strict chronological order, from the day she was born in 1961 in Leavenworth, Kan. It’s a journey from midcentury, Midwestern conformity to a career as a Grammy Award-winning, out-and-proud trailblazer.

Starting with darling black-and-white baby pictures shown huge on the upstage wall, the smart projections (by Olivia Sebesky) become increasingly intricate and eye-popping throughout the evening, particularly when Etheridge’s memories turn psychedelic. (The minimal set is by Bruce Rodgers, the luscious lighting by Abigail Rosen Holmes.)

Some Etheridge hits are, of course, among the two dozen or so songs and song fragments strung through the performance, including a fiery version of “Bring Me Some Water,” from her 1988 debut album, and a buoying, sing-along “Come to My Window,” the 1993 hit that gives the show its name. She also plays endearing obscurities, like the first songs she wrote as a child.

For all its musical polish, though, the show is verbally shaggy; Etheridge isn’t reciting memorized text but rather improvising, storyteller-style, from an outline of the piece’s main points, which scroll by on her monitor. (You will notice the monitor only if it’s behind you and you cheat like I did and turn around and look for it.) The upside to that looseness is a sense of thoughts articulated in the moment. The downside is a certain lack of eloquence.

Clocking in at three hours, including an intermission, the performance is surprisingly light on songs for about the first 30 minutes, and pushes a little too hard with the comedy of a roadie character (Kate Owens), who comes on to swap out Etheridge’s many jackets and guitars. (Costumes are by Andrea Lauer.)

Initially, Etheridge doesn’t even have the armor of an instrument as she roams the stage. The instant she gets a guitar to strap across her chest, her whole body relaxes. Similarly, she is most expressive when she has the rhythm and structure of music to hold onto. So the show’s chatter works best when it’s threaded around and through a song, as happens gracefully with “Juliet,” the companion to Etheridge’s reminiscence of her brief time at Berklee College of Music, and of finding lesbian community in Boston.

A life is a delicate thing to parade onstage, even or maybe especially in front of an adoring audience — lots of women, many apparent baby boomers and more straight couples than you might expect. A theatrical autobiography that’s honest can’t be neat, because some roughnesses refuse to be smoothed. So it goes here with the discussion of family, both the one Etheridge was born into and the ones she formed with the two women who are the other mothers of her four children.

Personal details are skated around, presumably for the usual reasons — privacy, or to spare someone’s feelings, or because humans are complex and there simply isn’t time. Her father, who chaperoned her at the gigs she played when she was underage and responded with love when she came out to him as a young adult, emerges as a sympathetic figure. Others, in some ways including Etheridge, come off less than well. It’s here that you sense the sadness, hidden until it’s not.

There comes a point, near the end of the show, when the stage plunges into inky blackness and Etheridge tells the story of the death of her 21-year-old son, Beckett , in 2020. It is spare and searing, the words uttered from a pit of grief.

And as she speaks of the healing power that performance has for her, you realize that this is part of what she’s doing here — that music and memories and the embrace of an ardent crowd might help, just maybe, to assuage the pain.

Melissa Etheridge Off Broadway: My Window — A Journey Through Life Through Oct. 29 at New World Stages, Manhattan; melissaetheridge.com . Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes.

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Welcome To Journey Through Life

Jtl, pllc is passionate and committed to help you enrich your life, your family, your workplace, and your community, register for one of our workshops, our mission.

• Have you been trying to change or heal by yourself, but without success?
• Would the most important people in your life benefit from you getting help or support?
• Do you feel that if you sought help you could begin to live a more fulfilling life?

If you answered Yes to any of these questions, it may be time to consider getting help. We will develop a plan of action with you and determine how we can support your journey towards growth and healing. We are here to encourage and help you understand the deepest issues that hold you back from truly living life. Is it time for a new Journey Through Life. “One Journey, Infinite Possibilities”

It has the potential to help us revisit the positive emotions of our past while improving our connections with ourselves and those around us in the present.

As part of psychosocial interventions, memories can create positive life narratives that support mental wellbeing and growth.

For clients facing their final years, or attempting to move through trauma, reminiscence therapy and life review therapy can help them recall and process past events. We look at how this therapy creates value for clients dealing with illness.

Before you continue reading, we thought you might like to download our three Grief Exercises [PDF] for free . These science-based tools will help you move yourself or others through grief in a compassionate way.

This Article Contains

What is the difference between reminiscence therapy and life review therapy, reminiscence therapy for specific conditions, life review therapy for specific conditions, 4 example reminiscence therapy activities, 20 insightful life review therapy questions, resources for reminiscence therapy and life review therapy, other helpful resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message, frequently asked questions.

Before we compare the two therapies, let’s first recap what each therapy does.

What is reminiscence therapy?

Reminiscence therapy is a psychosocial intervention based on remembering — sharing stories of what people have done, things they have seen, and places they have visited (Schweitzer & Bruce, 2008).

While there is currently no cure for dementia, psychosocial interventions based on remembering have been shown to support people with dementia and their families through tough times.

“By creating a supportive social environment we can enable people to continue to communicate, maintain relationships and be socially included, despite their dementia.”

Schweitzer & Bruce, 2008, p. 19

What is life review therapy?

When people are diagnosed with a severe illness, such as cancer, all attention may go to the disease and being ill. As a result, the meaning of past, present, and future can appear to change, and the individual may experience psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression (Kleijn et al., 2019).

Recollecting specific positive and autobiographical memories can offer strength through difficult times.

Life review therapy “aims to integrate positive and negative life events in a coherent life story and into a meaningful whole” (Kleijn et al., 2019, p. 3312).

In turn, the client experiences greater egocentricity through accepting their lives as “something that had to be, feeling connected to others, and experiencing a sense of wholeness, meaning, and coherence when facing death” (Kleijn et al., 2019, p. 3312).

How do reminiscence therapy and life review therapy differ?

While both therapies are psychosocial interventions that involve recalling and processing past events and reflecting on earlier experiences, reminiscence therapy’s goal is to engage people in conversations that promote social interaction, improve their mood, and increase their sense of self-worth.

Life review therapy is used when an individual’s attention and focus are dominated by their illness or situation. Life review therapy is used as a way of integrating positive and negative aspects of clients’ lives into an integrated whole (Schweitzer & Bruce, 2008; Kleijn et al., 2019).

Reminiscence therapy for PTSD

Reminiscence therapy offers a practical approach for treating posttraumatic stress symptoms in older war veterans by revisiting autobiographical memory (Daniels et al., 2015).

“Sharing of memories and facilitating client self-disclosure have been used in the treatment of older veterans,” leading to reduced symptoms of depression, improved self-assessed wisdom, and increased ability to make sense of the past (Daniels et al., 2015, p. 423).

The benefits of reminiscence therapy for hospice patients

Reminiscence therapy offers many benefits to various clinical populations, including those needing support in hospice environments or palliative care (Cuevas et al., 2020; Kleijn et al., 2018).

A 2018 study found that remembering activities and experiencing nostalgia encouraged acceptance in patients facing death, connecting them to others, creating a sense of wholeness, and finding deeper meaning in their lives (Kleijn et al., 2018).

Such treatments align with positive psychology, focusing on the “positive features that make life worth living such as hope , optimism, happiness, and wellbeing” even when nearing the end of life (Kleijn et al., 2018, p. 3318).

How reminiscence therapy can help Parkinson’s patients

Reminiscence activities (revisiting personal history) and interventions have been combined with mindfulness therapy to positively affect the mental wellbeing of patients affected by Parkinson’s disease (Reitano et al., 2023).

A 2023 pilot study found that patients receiving the combined treatment experienced improvements to their memory and cognition following the use of “household objects, past photographs, and music” to trigger autobiographical memories (Reitano et al., 2023, p. 3).

While further research is needed, the study’s authors suggest that reminiscence therapy offers a safe intervention for reducing depression, chronic pain, and anxiety while boosting cognitive potential (Reitano et al., 2023).

Reminiscence therapy for Alzheimer’s patients

It is widely accepted in the academic literature that reminiscence therapy is highly effective in treating adults with Alzheimer’s disease for depression, quality of life, cognitive issues, and activities involved in daily living (Cuevas et al., 2020).

Reminiscence therapy is most effective in this group when conducted regularly in small groups for an average of 45 minutes for an eight- to 12-week duration. Patients watch videos, listen to music, and look at photographs that help them remember their past experiences (Cuevas et al., 2020).

Nurses and other health care professionals can be taught the importance of reminiscence therapy and the “need to recognize the importance of using individual life stories, experiences, and memories in review,” especially in addressing the meaning of these experiences to the patients (Cuevas et al., 2020, p. 370).

How reminiscence therapy can help cancer patients

Individuals undergoing cancer treatment experience significant psychological changes. Studies show that “30%–45% of cancer survivors experienced depression and anxiety” (Sun et al., 2023, p. 1).

Ongoing research recognizes the value of reminiscence therapy for cancer patients. A recent review of clinical randomized controlled studies including 1,853 cancer patients found that those taking part in reminiscence therapy interventions reported significantly lowered symptoms of anxiety and depression (Sun et al., 2023).

Additional research also finds that the positive effects of such interventions are also seen in patients undergoing cancer treatment and those in postoperative recovery (Zhang et al., 2021).

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Life review therapy focuses on balancing positive and negative reminiscence, understanding life themes, redefining negative experiences, and elaborating memories. It is a powerful tool for developing a sense of worth, wellbeing, coherence, and reconciliation with the past (Preschl et al., 2012).

As such, life review therapy, while under-researched, appears to be a valuable treatment across multiple client groups.

How life review therapy can help with depression and anxiety

Life review therapy (and storytelling) is an effective treatment for clients experiencing symptoms associated with depression and anxiety (Preschl et al., 2012).

A six-week life review therapy administered via computer and face-to-face meetings showed significant improvements in participants’ depression, wellbeing, life satisfaction, and self-esteem (Preschl et al., 2012).

While other psychological interventions are available for treating anxiety symptoms, poor motivation often results in low uptake. Life reviews — looking back and evaluating our lives — may seem more enjoyable, particularly for those in distress.

Research shows that many people have a pleasant “reminiscence bump” in their youth and early adulthood — a period of increased and powerful memories (Korte et al., 2009; Koppel & Rubin, 2016).

In a 2009 study, life review interventions prevented symptoms from developing into full-blown depression and anxiety. They were identified as low-cost, easily implemented interventions across various cultures and socio-economic backgrounds (Korte et al., 2009).

Helping those with chronic illness

Quality of life often reduces in the elderly and the chronically ill. Life review therapy can help resolve past conflicts, rebuild life stories, and support clients in accepting their present circumstances (Sharif et al., 2018).

A 2018 study concluded that those in late-life care centers benefit from their nursing staff and families being trained in and employing life therapy interventions (Sharif et al., 2018).

An analysis of existing research into life review interventions in patients in palliative care reported a positive impact on the participants’ existential and spiritual domains and reduced feelings of concern and worry (Keall et al., 2015).

A 2017 study reported that clients in palliative care enjoyed the life therapy interventions in the form of collating photographs and writing letters or cards for family members. No change showed in their scores for ego-integrity ( finding meaning in past events and an absence of death anxiety) or generativity, the care and concern for future generations (Vuksanovic et al., 2017).

How to use the therapy for grief and loss

Bereavement  life review has been shown to elevate spiritual wellbeing and reduce symptoms of depression in caregivers leading up to and following their loved one’s death (Ando et al., 2015).

Caregivers reviewed memories of the deceased, recorded their narratives in a personal history book, and later discussed them in sessions with a therapist. The practice elevated their understanding surrounding what had happened and their experiences of self-change and growth (Ando et al., 2015).

Other research suggests that life review interventions can benefit factors such as good memories of families and make the last few days before death more pleasant, improving the spiritual wellbeing of bereaved families (Ando et al., 2011).

How life review therapy can help dementia patients

Reminiscence as part of life review therapy appears promising for dementia patients. One-to-one therapeutic sessions covering the client’s entire life can significantly improve their mood and reduce their behavioral problems (Haight et al., 2003).

Research findings suggest that life review interventions — with their “emphasis on active listening — can enable the person to ‘move on’ from being preoccupied with particular memories or concerns” (Haight et al., 2003, p. 165). The therapy appears to reenergize clients and help them become unstuck and continue to live their lives despite the onset of their illness.

1. Using tools

All jobs have tools specific to the needs of the task and the profession. If the therapist or care worker can find out what an older person did during their working years, they can source items from their trade.

For example, someone who worked on the docks all their life will instantly recognize a docker’s hook and be able to explain how they used it to lift heavy loads.

2. Photographs

Old photographs are a powerful device for revisiting the past. Collect photos that capture friends, families, locations, or hobbies important to the client.

Ask the client to talk about what each one means to them and the roles each person and place played in their lives.

Dancing and moving to music, especially from much earlier in the client’s life, can remind them of happier times, engaging in skills they learned many years ago while recollecting friends from that era.

4. Creating a memory box

Memory boxes are wonderful to put together and serve as valuable tools to revisit, especially if memories are fading.

Find photos, keepsakes, books, certificates, and even small items of clothing that promote remembrance and foster connections to earlier times and those here now.

Life therapy combines several different and powerful reminiscence interventions. Some are unstructured, such as a whole life review, while others are more structured, often using questions to cover particular events (Preschl et al., 2012).

The following 20 questions help uncover more of the client’s past and encourages them to reminisce (Life Review Interview Manual, n.d.):

• When and where were you born?
• Where did you grow up?
• What was your community like growing up?
• What kind of schooling did you have?
• Tell me about your parents/stepparents.
• Did you have any siblings? Tell me about them.
• How would you describe yourself during your childhood?
• What was it like when you were a teenager?
• Did you marry? At what age? If not, why not?
• Tell me about your marriage, your first job, and leaving home.
• Tell me about your career. What were you doing in your 30s, 40s, and 50s?
• Did you have children? Tell me about raising your children.
• What was your relationship with your children over the years?
• Do you have a close relationship with your children now?
• Who else are you close to?
• Who have been the most influential people at various stages in your life? Why? When? What were you doing at that time?
• Who are the important people in your life now?
• Do you keep in touch with any of your old friends?
• If you had to pick one person who significantly impacted your life, who would it be? And why?
• How have your friendships changed through the years?

We’ve listed several websites and books that contain valuable information on reminiscence therapy and life review treatment, along with some helpful activities.

• The Human Condition This resource explores the background of life review therapy and introduces some practical activities to engage with clients.
• The University of North Carolina This is a helpful guide to the benefits and practices involved in therapeutic reminiscence and life reviews.
• Relish: Reminiscence Therapy Here’s an overview of how we can use reminiscence with clients with dementia.
• Life Review Interview Manual This download from Clark University contains plenty of questions to use in life review therapy sessions.

1. Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today: Reminiscence in Dementia Care: A Guide to Good Practice – Pam Schweitzer and Errollyn Bruce

Schweitzer’s and Bruce’s book captures the importance of reminiscence in dementia care and how it can be used to great effect by family and carers.

The authors explore the nature of reminiscence therapy and take the reader through imaginative approaches and a wealth of resources for planning treatment and interventions.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. The Handbook of Structured Life Review – Barbara K. Haight and Barrett S. Haight

This handbook draws from the authors’ over 30 years of experience to guide therapeutic practitioners in helping clients reflect on their lives.

It covers communication techniques and step-by-step goals for mental health practitioners to work toward. Recommended questions are provided for each session, along with a helpful Life Review Form.

Life Review Therapy – This video offers guidance on how to perform life review therapy and explores its value when working with people with dementia.

Reminiscence Group Intervention – This video explores and explains the importance of tapping into people’s memories to benefit older adults and their families.

Reminiscence Therapy and Dementia – Dr. Jim Collins explains the importance of thinking back to earlier years and the positive emotions it brings.

We have several resources available for therapists wishing to use memories and recollections to support clients’ psychological wellbeing.

Our free resources include the following:

• Positive Memories of Childhood This valuable exercise helps the client remember and reflect upon their happiest childhood memories and capture the feelings associated with each one.
• Explore Maladaptive Modes This worksheet helps clients explore their childhood memories and discover the origin of their emotional states and possible maladaptive coping responses.

More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit© , but they are described briefly below.

• The Life Certificate One of the most challenging times in our life is enduring the death of a loved one. We can help clients cope with grief by remembering good things about the deceased.

Try out the following four steps:

• Step one – Reflect on special memories of your loved one.
• Step two – Add those special memories to your life certificate.
• Step three – Ask yourself: What do those memories mean to you? How does it feel to remember your loved one in this way? How would you describe the effect your loved one had on your life?
• Step four – Add the answers to the life certificate and sign it.
• Continuing the Bond to the Deceased Through Ritual After losing someone close, maintaining connections to our loved ones is vital.

This tool cultivates continuing bonds by celebrating various aspects of the deceased person’s life.

Answer each of the following:

• Step one – Birthday celebration: How did you and your loved one celebrate their birthday?
• Step two – Death anniversary: What does this day mean to you? How would you like to spend the day?
• Step three – What activities, places, or occasions did you and your loved one enjoy?

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others move through grief in a compassionate way, this collection contains 17 validated grief and bereavement exercises . Use them to help others find balance as they attempt to make sense of a life that has been irrevocably changed.

17 Exercises For Grief & Bereavement

Apply these 17 Grief & Bereavement Exercises [PDF] to help others process difficult emotions, leverage self-compassion, and find balance following painful loss.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Reminiscence therapy and life review therapy offer practical psychosocial interventions to help individuals recall and process past events to support their mental wellbeing.

In reminiscence therapy, sharing stories and memories promotes the client’s social interaction, improves their mood, and enhances their self-worth.

And it works. Studies have found that it can ease depression, anxiety, and cognitive difficulties across various disorders and patient groups (Daniels et al., 2015; Kleijn et al., 2018; Reitano et al., 2023; Cuevas et al., 2020).

While outwardly similar, life review therapy focuses on integrating positive and negative life events into a meaningful narrative. By emphasizing the importance of life stories, experiences, and memories, it supports clients in various populations, including those in their final years or dealing with past or present trauma.

Life review therapy can help clients accept their lives and create a sense of wholeness and coherence when facing death.

By incorporating reminiscence therapy and life review therapy into their treatments, therapists can support clients as they reconnect with positive emotions, improve their relationships, and foster mental wellbeing while enhancing their overall quality of life.

We hope you benefited from reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Grief Exercises [PDF] for free .

Reminiscence therapy benefits clients dealing with illness or trauma or approaching the end of life.

The approach has proven effective in alleviating depression, anxiety, and cognitive issues across various disorders and patient groups.

Life review therapy supports clients as they integrate positive and negative life events into a meaningful narrative, promoting a sense of wholeness and coherence.

It helps individuals accept their lives, feel connected to others, and experience a sense of meaning and wholeness, particularly when facing death.

• Ando, M., Morita, T., Miyashita, M., Sanjo, M., Kira, H., & Shima, Y. (2011). Factors that influence the efficacy of bereavement life review therapy for spiritual well-being: A qualitative analysis. Supportive Care in Cancer , 19 , 309–314.
• Ando, M., Marquez-Wong, F., Simon, G., Kira, H., & Becker, C. (2015). Bereavement life review improves spiritual well-being and ameliorates depression among American caregivers. Palliative & Supportive Care , 13 (2), 319–325.
• Cuevas, P. E., Davidson, P. M., Mejilla, J. L., & Rodney, T. W. (2020). Reminiscence therapy for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease: A literature review. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing , 29 (3), 364–371.
• Daniels, L. R., Boehnlein, J., & McCallion, P. (2015). Aging, depression, and wisdom: A pilot study of life-review intervention and PTSD treatment with two groups of Vietnam veterans. Journal of Gerontological Social Work , 58 (4), 420–436.
• Haight, B. K., Bachman, D. L., Hendrix, S., Wagner, M. T., Meeks, A., & Johnson, J. (2003). Life review: Treating the dyadic family unit with dementia. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy , 10 (3), 165–174.
• Keall, R. M. Clayton, J. M., & Butow, P. N. (2015). Therapeutic life review in palliative care: A systematic review of quantitative evaluations. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management , 49 (4), 747–761.
• Kleijn, G., Lissenberg-Witte, B. I., Bohlmeijer, E. T., Steunenberg, B., Knipscheer-Kuijpers, K., Willemsen, V., Becker, A., Smit, E. F., Eeltink, C. M., Bruynzeel, A. M., van der Vorst, M., de Bree, R., Leemans, C. R., van den Brekel, M. W., Cuijpers, P., & Verdonck-de Leeuw, I. M. (2018). The efficacy of life review therapy combined with memory specificity training (LRT-MST) targeting cancer patients in palliative care: A randomized controlled trial. PLOS ONE , 13 (5).
• Kleijn, G., van Uden-Kraan, C. F., Bohlmeijer, E. T., Becker-Commissaris, A., Pronk, M., Willemsen, V., Cuijpers, P., & Verdonck-de Leeuw, I. M. (2019). Patients’ experiences of life review therapy combined with memory specificity training (LRT-MST) targeting cancer patients in palliative care. Supportive Care in Cancer , 27 (9), 3311–3319.
• Koppel, J., & Rubin, D. C. (2016). Recent advances in understanding the reminiscence bump: The importance of cues in guiding recall from autobiographical memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 25 (2), 135–149.
• Korte, J., Bohlmeijer, E. T. & Smit, F. (2009). Prevention of depression and anxiety in later life: Design of a randomized controlled trial for the clinical and economic evaluation of a life-review intervention. BMC Public Health , 9 , 250.
• Life Review Interview Manual . (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/dmerrill/soc180/manual.doc.
• Preschl, B., Maercker, A., Wagner, B., Forstmeier, S., Baños, R. M., Alcañiz, M., Castilla, D., & Botella, C. (2012). Life-review therapy with computer supplements for depression in the elderly: A randomized controlled trial. Aging & Mental Health , 16 (8), 964–974.
• Reitano, M. R., Guidetti, M., Maiorana, N. V., De Sandi, A., Carusi, F., Rosci, C., Ruggiero, F., Poletti, B., Ticozzi, N., Mameli, F., Barbieri, S., Silani, V., Priori, A., & Ferrucci, R. (2023). The effects of a new integrated and multidisciplinary cognitive rehabilitation program based on mindfulness and reminiscence therapy in patients with Parkinson’s disease and mild cognitive impairment: A pilot study. Brain Sciences , 13 (2), 201.
• Schweitzer, P., & Bruce, E. (2008). Remembering yesterday, caring today: Reminiscence in dementia care: A guide to good practice . Jessica Kingsley.
• Sharif, F., Jahanbin, I., Amirsadat, A., & Hosseini Moghadam, M. (2018). Effectiveness of life review therapy on quality of life in the late life at day care centers of Shiraz, Iran: A randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Community-Based Nursing and Midwifery , 6 (2), 136–145.
• Sun, J., Jiang, J., Wang, Y., Zhang, M., Dong, L., Li, K., & Wu, C. (2023). The efficacy of reminiscence therapy in cancer-related symptom management: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 22 .
• Vuksanovic, D., Green, H. J., Dyck, M., & Morrissey, S. A. (2017). Dignity therapy and life review for Palliative Care Patients: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management , 53 (2).
• Zhang, L., Li, Y., Kou, W., Xia, Y., Yu, X., & Du, X. (2021). Reminiscence therapy exhibits alleviation of anxiety and improvement of life quality in Postoperative Gastric Cancer Patients. Medicine, 100 (35).

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A Journey through Life

Fred S. Hirsekorn FriesenPress ( Aug 6, 2014 ) Softcover $22.99 ( 280pp ) 978-1-4602-4699-3

Clarion Rating: 3 out of 5

Experienced at life, Hirsekorn has valuable lessons for adults and children.

A Journey Through Life , by Fred Hirsekorn, anthologizes some key moments in life for this German-born author who has witnessed the devastating reality of the Holocaust, been to war, and experienced the loss of one of his adult children. Through poetry, storytelling, and photographs, Hirsekorn attempts to capture his life story and share valuable life lessons at the same time.

Divided into seven sections, the book is a patchwork of four distinct parts: Hirsekorn explores life lessons that can be shared with children; he daringly reveals some interesting and quite compelling family and personal history; he examines his difficulty with creative writing and overcoming writer’s block; and finally, he contemplates philosophical questions.

Several of the anecdotes confer important life lessons that are perfect for sharing with children, though adults will surely benefit as well. The chapter entitled “The Monster” reminds us to face the unknown head-on, and to remember that scary things aren’t always what they appear to be, and “Chocolate Pudding” teaches the importance of patience.

Moving through the collection is somewhat difficult. There are many noticeable and rather distracting grammar and spelling errors throughout, hindering the book’s flow. Transitions from one passage to the next are disjointed at times. And some of the short stories end rather abruptly, leaving a feeling of dissatisfaction or confusion concerning the overall goal of the tale. Even more confusing is the four-part framework of the book. Each is so distinctly different from the others that they fail to form a cohesive whole. In particular, the section dealing with the author’s struggle with creative writing and how to deal with writer’s block is puzzling—though interesting and at times inspirational, this topic does not fit well with the rest of the story.

The tone of the first section, which primarily focuses on life lessons for children, is presented in a childish voice. Though ideally adults will share some of the content with their children, kids will not be reading directly from this book. The tone of the rest of the book, however, does seem better suited to the target audience.

“Culture Shock,” “Stressful Suspension,” and “From a Withered Tree a Flower Blooms,” all poems, are particularly meaningful passages. In general, the poetry is quite pleasant and well crafted. Additionally, the use of humor is refreshing and does help move the book along when other elements weigh it down. “It All Started With a Kiss,” “The Idiots Won the War,” and “Jump off and fly?” are particularly enjoyable.

With all of its stumbling blocks, A Journey Through Life does still entertain and offer something valuable. The content is very relevant and has the potential to appeal to most adults, a little bit at a time.

Reviewed by Laura Mahon November 5, 2014

Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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Melissa Etheridge on My Window - A Journey Through Life , Truth-Telling & Theater Dreams

Oscar and Grammy winner Melissa Etheridge begins performances in her show  My Window - A Journey Through Life  on October 13. On The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal , the rock star spoke with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek about her career, staying true to herself and her off-Broadway stint, which runs through October 29.

Etheridge, whose show chronicles everything from her music-making to her battle with breast cancer to her sexuality, came out publicly early on in her career in 1993, the same year she released the album Yes I Am.  "Come to My Window" won her a second Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance that year. "In the nineties, especially, before social media, it was hard to be gay, one, and in the closet and be famous," she said. "They were always chasing you and stuff, and I didn't like that at all, so I said, 'Look, I'm just going to come out. I'm going to be truthful about myself and just see where it goes and see what happens.' That way, I don't have to worry about anything. Other people can worry about stuff if they want, but I'm not gonna worry about it. I'm just being me and doing my thing."

These days, "doing my thing" means getting vulnerable in a theatrical venue, something Etheridge has been inspired to do since Springsteen on Broadway in 2017. "It's a dream come true. It really is," she said. "I have always loved stage. My shows are made where we can set it up, we can rock the hell out of you for two hours, leave town, thank you very much, goodbye. It's great and wonderful. I love it, and I'll be doing that for the rest of my life. But to be able to be in one place and really set up production and set up a stage that's going to tell a story from birth 'til now—I'm really excited."

Etheridge made her Broadway debut in a weeklong stint as St. Jimmy in Green Day's American Idiot back in 2011. Her Broadway dreams haven't stopped there. "I would love to write a musical with all original music," she said.

Watch the interview below, and head here  to check your local listings for  The Broadway Show . Hosted by Emmy-winning anchor Tamsen Fadal, it is the only nationally syndicated  weekly  theater news program.

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Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants

By Andy Beta

Pop/R&B

August 4, 2019

A journalist might have found themselves one autumn morning in 1976 eating a luxurious breakfast at Essex House before boarding a private jet to a farmhouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, to have a first-listen to Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece, Songs in the Key of Life . Wonder himself introduced the album, decked out in a cream-colored cowboy suit and hat, with a leather gun belt whose holsters were festooned with the cover art and the message “#1 WITH A BULLET.” Universally beloved, it shipped gold, entered the charts at No. 1, and stayed there until January of 1977.

When a journalist could next chat with Wonder, it was nearly three years later. They could just take the 2 train uptown to the New York Botanical Garden, where critics were instead served vegetarian fare as they listened to another double album, the follow-up to his magnum opus. Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants was years in the making, a soundtrack based on Walon Green’s documentary based on the bestselling book about how plants can be lie-detector tests, how the fern in your house reacts to your emotions, and how mustard seeds can communicate with distant galaxies.

October 1979 was a particularly auspicious month for double albums like Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk and the Who’s Quadrophenia soundtrack (Pink Floyd’s The Wall and the Clash’s London Calling would soon follow). Secret Life of Plants entered at No. 4 on the album charts its first week but quickly plummeted. After Wonder collected 12 Grammys in a four-year span, Secret Life of Plants only garnered one measly nomination. An incredibly ambitious tour—boasting over 60 musicians, singers, sound crew, staff, a computer to synchronize his synthesizers, a screen projecting scenes from the film, and a recording truck—hemorrhaged money and was truncated to six dates. Stevie couldn’t even sell out his hometown of Detroit.

Motown Record executives and fans alike did not know where to begin this Journey and critics were merciless. “May Be His Worst Yet,” read one headline. “More than being awful pieces of music, [they] reek of automation and transmit no sincerity,” went a review. Rolling Stone likened it to Karo syrup and called it “a strange succession of stunted songs, nattering ballads and wandering instrumentals,” while Robert Christgau equated it to “[an] anonymous Hollywood hack at their worst...ardently schmaltzy instead of depressingly schlocky.” The Village Voice equated it to “the painful awkwardness of a barely literate sidewalk sermon.”

It’s a reversal of fortune without equal in pop music. In nearly any appreciation of Stevie Wonder’s profound run of music, Secret Life of Plants serves as a page break, a bookend, the arid valley after the vertiginous peak of the beloved Songs in the Key of Life . In almost every assessment, it marks the end of the greatest run in pop music history. “If Alexander wept when there were no more worlds left to conquer,” critic Jack Hamilton said when Slate ran their “ Wonder Week ” feature, “Stevie happily composed 90 minutes of largely instrumental music for the soundtrack to a documentary about botany.”

Favoring slowness as well as quicksilver mood shifts, spare balladry and additive composition, acoustic guitars and two $40,000 Yamaha GX-1 synthesizers, whimsical experimentation and near invisible incremental movement, an album with six credits for “special programming of synthesizer” and Wonder with almost all other instrumentation, it’s a flummoxing and charming album wherein Wonder sings about seeds, leaves, and ecology as he himself embodies the traits of his botanical muse. The best insight into Plants may lie in the original Times review, where, in the midst of meditating on self-indulgence and Wonder’s sentimental mysticism, John Rockwell notes: “He has also managed to make an album that in its own idiosyncratic way may seem an oasis of peace and calm amid the bustle of the rest of the pop-music business.”

When Wonder accepted the challenge of providing a soundtrack for the documentary, even he was surprised: “I’d always figured if I did one it would be for a film that raised society’s consciousness about black people.” Originally, the film was to use a soundtrack made in part from plants with Wonder contributing “Tree” for the end of the picture. It didn’t fit with the rest of the film, but producer Michael Braun asked Wonder to instead score the entire film. So Wonder would go in with a four-track recorder and headphones. In the left channel was Braun explaining what was happening on-screen while engineer Gary Olazbal would count down the number of frames in the sequence in his right, leaving Wonder to sketch out the score.

Six studios would ultimately be used. It was only the second album to ever be recorded digitally (Ry Cooder’s Bop Til You Drop beat it by a few months) and the first album to use a sampler in the form of the rudimentary Computer Music Melodian, which perhaps explains the special thanks given to the air traffic controllers at Dallas-Fort Worth airport and the Los Angeles Zoo.

Its scope is difficult to convey, not just because a blind musician provided a soundtrack for a film that he himself could not see. Wonder probably saw about as much of the film as the general populace did, as The Secret Life of Plants never got a wide release in theaters and was never put out on VHS, DVD, or made available on streaming services. The opening movement of “Earth’s Creation” is ludicrously bombastic all on its own, full of Phantom of the Opera -style high-frequency shredding and chord-bludgeoning. With the film though, it pairs perfectly with intensely dramatic images of spuming lava, crashing tsunami waves, flapping seaweed, and dancing plankton. The first side of the album remains wildly uneven, but how else to convey the Godlike act of creation without being by turns chaotic, messy, lovely, whimsical, and a little cruel?

“The First Garden”—with its lullaby chimes, sampled bird songs and crickets, acoustic bass, and harmonica line (all played by Wonder)—provides the underlying motif of The Secret Life of Plants and it works magically with the time-lapse images of sprouting acorns, spores, and new shoots. And while “Voyage to India” might seem willfully exotic on the album, mixing together themes that appear later into an array of wineglass drones, symphonic strings, and sitar, it works with the film and its introduction of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, the Indian polymath and botanist. Later on, Wonder folds in a Japanese children’s choir and a crackling duo of African kora and djembe drum.

It’s nearly 15 minutes into the album before Stevie Wonder’s voice appears, telling the story of both Bose and George Washington Carver on the plaintive “Same Old Story.” It scans as the first of many songs overtly about plants, as well as one of Wonder’s most forced biographical efforts. But the stories of Bose and Carver are far more painful than that. Bose was an Indian subject of the Queen, his work discovering the electrical nature of plants largely ignored by the Royal Society in London during his time. Across the ocean, the slave-born botanist Carver struggled most of his life to rise to the descriptor of “ Black Leonardo .” But as brown- and black-skinned men—“Born of slaves who died,” as Wonder puts it—their genius was discounted and dismissed outright in white society. There’s a tactile resignation in the chorus: “It’s that same old story again.”

In exploring the neglected, ignored, seemingly inhuman aspects that society affixes to the plant kingdom, Wonder finds resonance between his botanical subject matter and the black experience. “A Seed’s a Star” states in its first line: “We’re a people black as is your night/Born to spread Amma’s eternal light.” Reaching back to the Dogon tribe of Africa and their worship of the distant star Sirius B, also referred to as “Po Tolo,” that name in their language signifies at once the immensity of that heavenly body as well as the smallest seed, a paradox that encompasses the interconnectedness of all life.

Stevie introduces many voices other than his own. Children’s voices and overheard conversations hover at the periphery of several songs. Wonder deepens the dimensions of the album with these intimate, everyday sounds, drawing correlations to childhood, memories, and the connections between people, not just between plants. It suggests that the album could seemingly arise out of anyone’s daily life. While the book and film could be esoteric, Wonder insisted that the album was in part about down-to-earth black life and love, telling The Washington Post that year that this music “comes just from my life.” Perhaps that’s why he had his ex-wife, Syreeta Wright, come to lend her soft vocals to the indelible piano ballad, “Come Back as a Flower,” wishing to spread the sweetness of love and envisioning “that with everything I was one.”

Human as it can be, The Secret Life of Plants is big and wide enough to be decidedly other , too, as when Wonder warps his platinum voice with a wide array of electronics. There’s the Brainfeeder funk of “Venus’ Flytrap and The Bug,” maybe the closest he ever got to the sound of his contemporary, George Clinton. And then there’s the femme falsetto he adopts to sing as Pan for one of Journey ’s sweet delights, “Power Flower.” A woozy, low-key gem in the Stevie Wonder songbook (check the stretched taffy of his coos-and-drums solo 3:30 into the song) and one of Janet Jackson’s favorites , Wonder utilizes his synths to make himself sound something other than human.

That strange, neutered, warbling, alien voice that arises on the astonishing “Race Babbling” is as visionary a sound as anything Stevie ever created. It’s a techno odyssey that resembles the likes of Carl Craig and Juan Atkins and the hazy, ethereal feel of Solange’s When I Get Home (she explicitly credited this album’s influence on her own approach). In the context of the film’s collage of sped-up urban scenes, it even anticipates Philip Glass’ groundbreaking score for another nature documentary, Koyaanisqatsi . Unfurling, clenching, spiraling, and mutating across its nine minutes, it’s the longest song on the album and approaches the sort of gender destabilization of something like the Knife’s Shaking the Habitual . Wonder’s voice morphs and merges with the timbres of trumpet and saxophone (his manically high-pitched vocal hook is a freakish delight), and later blurs into the harmonies of Josie James until it’s hard to parse who is who. It’s a disorienting effect in more ways than one, a queering of the biggest African-American male pop star of the era that’s still without precedent.

Rather than attempt to carry on with Key of Life ’s trajectory and his own heritage, Stevie had the rare cache to wander down every path, in effect making Motown his own private press label. No longer rooted to the traditions of soul, gospel or the sound of Motown that he built his legacy upon, Wonder literally branched out, reaching upward towards an undetermined new destination, exploring intuitively and fearlessly in a manner that few artists have ever managed to do in the history of pop music.

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The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour review – a Palestinian prisoner writes

Jailed since the first intifada, Abu Srour charts a deeply personal journey through the conflict that has defined his life

A ttempts to end the violence in Gaza have focused on the exchange of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. One of the many Palestinians is Nasser Abu Srour, who has been incarcerated since 1993 for his alleged involvement in the death of an Israeli intelligence officer during the first intifada . This is the fourth time the prospect of freedom has been raised, the past three ending in disappointment, even when his release was part of a 2013 peace process pledge brokered by the Obama administration.

His experience might be difficult to imagine but for the extraordinary memoir he has written, translated into lyrical prose by Luke Leafgren. “This is the story of a wall that somehow chose me as the witness of what it said and did,” he begins. In a prison, walls are ever present, the single reliable feature of the world. The idea of the wall becomes a focal point for Abu Srour’s narrative, the stability to which he clings, the source of comfort and continuity.

Aspects of this life are familiar from his upbringing in a refugee camp in Bethlehem, his parents both having been displaced by the Nakba in 1948. The camp, walled in on four sides, unable to expand to fit its growing population, erupted in 1987 as part of the first intifada. The response of the occupying forces was mass repression and imprisonment, including Abu Srour’s.

“Farewell world,” he scratches on the wall after he is placed in solitary confinement at the beginning of his sentence. Following an extended hunger strike across the prison population, conditions improve, and he is moved to a shared cell. Although he now has people to cook, eat and discuss politics with, he experiences the shift as profoundly unsettling. He resists a rare chance to look at the spring landscape from a prison transport because he “was eagerly awaiting our destination and a return to my wall, with the clarity of all its empty space the profusion of questions and answers as yet unwritten, since they would all come from me”. Frequent changes in his location, from the Negev desert to coastal Ashkelon, are used as starting points for reflections on the history, geography, literature and religion of this small patch of land.

Abu Srour’s position apart from the society he grew up in gives his accounts of the wider conflict a curious objectivity. He is no longer an actor in the drama of Palestine, and so follows the developments at one remove. The Oslo accords initially bring hope: “The prison camps rose to their feet and remained standing,” he writes. But this soon ebbed away as details emerged. Yasser Arafat , the “Chief Storyteller”, signed documents and maps with the “Occupying State” that “he was unable to explain”. The attacks of September 11 and the subsequent rise of Islamism within the Palestinian struggle is condemned. In the Arab spring he initially perceives hope, and a sense of continuity with the Palestinian struggle.

What emerges from this memoir is the internal landscape of an individual in extremis. Abu Srour’s humanity shines through, even as he endures an incarceration with no end in sight. Yet enduring is not the right word for his story. He instead speaks in terms of “soaring”, the prisoners being “people of the sky”, whose souls and bodies have separated, leaving them free to attain new heights. It is this poetic sensibility that brings freshness to the telling of the well‑rehearsed story of this long-running conflict: we see it anew.

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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'The Happy Holmes Podcast,' where faith meets everyday life. Join us as we explore the intersections of Christianity, marriage, parenting, and business. Each episode is a journey through the challenges and joys that come with nurturing a family, fostering faith, and building businesses. Whether you're looking for spiritual guidance, practical parenting tips, or insights into running a Christ-centered business, you'll find inspiration and support here. Tune in to grow in your faith and learn from the Holmes' adventures in everything in between. Available on all major podcast platforms.

The Happy Holmes Podcast Nick & Crystalle Holmes

• Religion & Spirituality
• 5.0 • 2 Ratings
• APR 26, 2024

Depresso Espresso

We're serving up a shot of humor with a side of reality as we explore depression, addiction, and the chaos of being human. Join us for a ride that's equal parts therapy session and comedy show, because when life gets you down, a little laughter can be the best medicine.

• APR 19, 2024

Hello World, we are the Holmes'

Welcome to our debut episode! We're thrilled (and a bit nervous) to explore topics close to our hearts. Join us as we discuss viewing God as a friend, the nuances of intimacy, and life through the lens of comedy. Dive in with us!

• © 2024 The Happy Holmes Podcast. All rights reserved.

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