What is the Lifeline Technique?

The Lifeline is the second, and most visual, step of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET): the client maps their entire life, from birth to today, on a physical line marked with symbols, together with the therapist. It's a powerful tool that gives both the client and the therapist a bird's-eye view of the whole story.

What do the symbols mean?

• 🌸 Flower: positive, empowering memories, resources, important people, moments of achievement.
• 🪨 Stone: represents both fearful/traumatic events and sad/difficult events. Because these rest on two different psychological dynamics, a fear stone and a grief stone are marked separately.
• 🥢 Stick: represents the client's own acts of violence or aggression.
• 🕯️ Candle (optional): used for loss and grief — some clients prefer a stone, some a candle, some both.

Why is it completed in a single session?

This is the Lifeline's strictest rule: it is completed in one session, never split across several. At this stage there is no narration or deep dive yet — only a name, a time (age/period), a place, and a short title are given. This is called "cold memory" in therapy: marking an event's place in the life chronology without yet touching its emotional weight.

This limitation is deliberate: the goal of the Lifeline session is not to process events in depth, but to draw the map. Deep processing happens later, in the narration sessions, through the NE cycle.

How does the session work?

1. It starts at birth (an optional birth flower can be placed).
2. As the client places symbols chronologically, they're asked for a short name, age/period, and place for each one.
3. Only a flower (a wish or hope) may be placed in the future section — no negative symbol.
4. The line ends when it reaches the present; together, therapist and client take a bird's-eye look at it.
5. The session closes on a positive note; grief or complaints are not deepened here.

At the end of the Lifeline session, the line is taken down together, respectfully — it is never left lying out in the open.

Why is the Lifeline so effective?

For people who have experienced multiple or repeated trauma, telling their life story often feels chaotic, fragmented, or overwhelming. The Lifeline turns that chaos into something concrete, visible, and manageable. The client becomes both the author and the director of their own story; the therapist remains a witness and a guide.

The final Lifeline, redrawn in the last session, also gives a concrete picture of the progress made from start to finish — it's usually far more complete than the first one, and carries a real sense of accomplishment.

Why does a digital tool make a difference?

Traditionally, the Lifeline is built physically on the floor, with a rope and collected natural objects (stones, flowers, sticks). A digital tool doesn't replace that experience, but it does give the therapist extra capabilities: showing or hiding symbols by category, zooming in, keeping and comparing multiple Lifeline versions (for example, a first and a final one), and visually marking which events have already been processed.