Creative reminiscence as an early intervention for depression: Results of a pilot project

Abstract

Reminiscence may help in resolving conflicts from the past and making up the balance of one's life. Life-review may be further enhanced by the creative expression of memories in stories, poems or drawings. In this way people are encouraged to create and discover metaphors, images and stories that symbolically represent the subjective and inner meaning of their lives. In this article, a new intervention, which combines reminiscence and creative expression aimed at early treatment of depression, is described. A pilot project showed that the intervention Searching for the meaning in life may generate small-sized effects in reducing depression. Additionally, it appears to generate effects of medium size in enhancing mastery. Several possible ways to improve the effectiveness of the intervention are described.

The effects of reminiscence on psychological well-being in older adults: A meta-analysis

“…bitterness, powerlessness) are influenced and what skills are needed by counsellors. Promising are life-review interventions that combine life-review with other therapeutic approaches (Bohlmeijer, Valenkamp, Westerhof, Smit, & Cuijpers, 2005;Watt & Cappeliez, 2000). Secondly it may be useful to focus on one or two settings and target-groups as a first step to further establish the evidence base of lifereview and to replicate studies in different countries.…”

Predictors of psychological adjustment after bereavement

“…Therefore, enhancement of mastery should probably be one of the components of effective support for those widowed individuals who are most vulnerable to psychiatric complications. In this respect, it might be useful to consider, for example, control-enhancing interventions (Pinquart and Sörenson, 2001;Schulz, 1976) and reminiscence (Bohlmeijer et al, 2005). The widowed could furthermore benefit from social support, which also appears to influence bereavement outcomes directly and indirectly by neutralizing some of the adverse effects of other predictors.…”

The Effects of Integrative Reminiscence on Depressive Symptomatology and Mastery of Older Adults

“…In addition, interventions in which reminiscence is combined with other therapeutic approaches (Watt and Cappeliez 2000) are promising. Reminiscence has been integrated with cognitive therapy (Watt and Cappeliez 2000), stress-coping theories (Watt and Cappeliez 2000) and creative therapy (Bohlmeijer et al 2005). Another possibility is the integration of reminiscence and narrative therapy.…”