Description
The Biographical Time Bar is an instrument for the reconstruction and notation of real and verifiable life history courses in the context of Social Work.
The instrument was developed in social psychiatry in the Netherlands, disseminated among the German-speaking professional public by Peter Pantuček-Eisenbacher, and further developed within the framework of the transnational university cooperation TransSoDia.
The Biographical Time Bar can be applied to children from the age of nine and for adults of all age groups. It is used primarily in longer-term counselling and care contexts, e.g., in outpatient social psychiatry, addiction aid, and probation assistance.
Using the Biographical Time Bar, the course of a life can be visualised in compact yet comprehensive form. With this visual representation, life phases can be made visible and put in relation to the entire course of life. The client thus sees the whole life story at one glance, and a bridge is built between the past and the present. The objective is to gain an overview of life episodes and stations so far, identify temporal connections, and render life challenges (that have been overcome) visible and capable of being discussed.
Special Characteristics of Diagnosis Using the Biographical Time Bar
- The life history is understood as a multidimensional event. The various dimensions of an individual life are in interaction with each other and follow their own inner logic at the same time (e.g., family biography and educational biography).
- The visualisation using a time bar requires the collection of data that is partly not present in the minds of the interviewed persons. The procedure thus connects elements of file-based anamnesis with the accounts/narratives of persons. The data annotates the narration, and the narration annotates the data. In this way, the creation of the Biographical Time Bar also serves the purpose of detecting coping strategies, calling them to mind, and reflecting on them in terms of their applicability to current challenges.
- The time bar adds a graphic representation to the narrations that opens up a new perspective on the biography. The visualisation of the life history builds a bridge between the past and the present and helps the client to comprehend their own development.
In the joint analysis, theses regarding the person’s own development are worked out and, what is more, resources and coping strategies are identified: Which areas of life have been influenced by an event? How did the person cope with critical life events and stressful phases in the past? Which correlations can be established between the biographical dimensions? These questions can provide references to hidden resources or successful coping strategies and are thus relevant for the planning of further interventions.