Guided Autobiography Instructor Training

In coordination with The Birren Center, Online Guided Autobiography (GAB) Instructor Training offers in-depth training for those who want to incorporate the GAB method into their professional practice or earn extra income by teaching Guided Autobiography courses. Eight Sessions Eight Themes Each week we will explore a different theme such as Family or Branching Points which will prepare you for teaching your own classes. Writing Each week you will write 800-1,000 words on the selected theme. These personal stories of your most treasured memories may form the start of your own memoir or legacy letter. Sharing Each week students will share their stories. This is the secret sauce of Guided Autobiography and demonstrates the power of story. The curriculum I teach 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 wrote 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 55 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 just to name a few. Gab has evolved into a dynamic, flexible format used in lifelong learning, in counselling, psychotherapy and, recording legacy life stories. GAB is taught in several languages.