Integrate Storytelling into Your Life & Work

This site is intended to be a searchable database of resources created and curated by Gael Gilliland to support you in your storytelling adventures. This page will provide some context and give you launch points to help you find what you need.

Click the button below and schedule a workshopping session. These sessions can be used to make a storytelling project plan, outline a family story project, or get guidance for the right tool/platform to use.

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legacy storytelling method

The Legacy Storytelling Method is based on the 5 W's and is the backbone of everything in the Legacy World.

Who • What • When • Where • Why

These simple prompts are followed by what I affectionately call the "Digging Deeper" questions. These questions give people an opportunity to reflect and dig into their emotions and legacy.

The Who: Everyone

Here at the Legacy Recorder, we believe everyone can tell their story no matter what age or cognitive ability they are at. How they tell their story may be quite different from you or me, but they are telling it all the same.

Female nurse and elderly female patient

When & Where to Implement & Integrate Storytelling

Real talk? All the time 😂 Seriously though, here are a few situations where storytelling can help people connect and start the process of restoring human dignity. Each "When" has its own challenges. As you navigate the resources I've created and curated, keep your situation and needs in mind.

The How: Books, Journals, Courses, & Activities

If you have a sense of what you need, choose an option below.

Why Listen to Me

  • Trained over 80 students and staff to work in care facilities with residents to help them tell their life stories
  • Guided over 100 people through Legacy Projects
  • Published over 70 individual life storybooks
  • Countless families and individuals have used the Legacy Recorder to work together to tell their stories around the globe
  • Directed & managed the creation of a video series to illustrate the impact of the program on university students 
gael gilliland holding her book The Legacy Recorder Community Guide