12 Story Prompts
Need something to talk about?
Start here.
These are 12 of the early questions we used when building Guided Stories.
They are meant to do one thing:
Make you remember something.
Try a Prompt Right Now
These are gentle, senior-friendly questions. Click "Show another" to browse all 12.
Free to view. Email to download/print.
People who Shaped Me
Who believed in you before you believed in yourself?
Get a clean, large-font printout + a one-page facilitation guide.
Why these kinds of questions?
Because different questions bring back different parts of life.
And yes, there is actual research behind the kinds of topics we use.
Celebrations & Milestones
Time-capsule messages for future events map directly to legacy documents used in dignity/life-review approaches, providing enduring connection at key family moments.
Celebrations & Milestones
Time-capsule messages for future events map directly to legacy documents used in dignity/life-review approaches, providing enduring connection at key family moments.
Family & Relationships
Life story work strengthens person-centred care and improves communication between residents, relatives and staff by supporting identity expression.
Family & Relationships
Life story work strengthens person-centred care and improves communication between residents, relatives and staff by supporting identity expression.
Health, Resilience & Growth
Reminiscence and cognitive-stimulation styles support mood/communication and can improve cognition and quality of life; they normalize challenges and model coping.
Health, Resilience & Growth
Reminiscence and cognitive-stimulation styles support mood/communication and can improve cognition and quality of life; they normalize challenges and model coping.
Resources
Hobbies, Work & Passions
Prompts about interests and music cue autobiographical memory; music-evoked autobiographical memories are potent, vivid and self-relevant, boosting engagement.
Hobbies, Work & Passions
Prompts about interests and music cue autobiographical memory; music-evoked autobiographical memories are potent, vivid and self-relevant, boosting engagement.
Reminiscence & Life-Story
Structured reminiscence produces small but meaningful gains in quality of life, communication, mood and sometimes cognition—especially in care-home and one-to-one formats.
Reminiscence & Life-Story
Structured reminiscence produces small but meaningful gains in quality of life, communication, mood and sometimes cognition—especially in care-home and one-to-one formats.
Wisdom & Life Advice
Legacy-creating life review (e.g., Dignity Therapy) is acceptable and helps with meaning, generativity and aspects of psychological well-being for patients and families.
Wisdom & Life Advice
Legacy-creating life review (e.g., Dignity Therapy) is acceptable and helps with meaning, generativity and aspects of psychological well-being for patients and families.