Your Song that Year - an Individual or Group Therapy Exercise

For individuals to use an act of self-discovery or for therapists to use in a set of group or exploratory-therapy sessions:

Choose a song from each year that you've been alive that represents that year.

Some methods:

• Make a blog and link each song by the year.
• Journal a page a day on a year, a song, or some event going on in your life.
• Discuss the meaning of the song and why it fits for that year.
• What was going on in your life that year that makes the song memorable to you?
• Look for patterns of negativity in the songs and negativity in life - or the opposite, escaping into positive music when things were bad.
• In a group, look for patterns, shared songs, shared experiences, how things were processed differently by the members, and share some of the actual songs for next group meeting.

For instance: When I was 2, my mom would often take me to the beach where I was allowed to run around naked. She says as soon as my pants were off, I'd start singing "Freedom" the chorus to Aretha Franklin's song Think.

That example is surely unique to me and the time and place. But would my mom choose that song for the same year? I don't know. I'd like to know, and challenging people to this exercise is an interesting way to connect with others, or have group members connect to one another.

Please let me know in the comments if you'd like to link your blog or share your experience with this exercise or how it went in your groups.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.