Your Personal History
by Steven Sawyer, MSSW

An essential component of mental health treatment is the gathering of important information about the client’s life history. The Your Personal History workbook provides a structure for this process. From simple yes/no questions to those that encourage short paragraphs of reflection, the workbook not only helps your clients reflect on important aspects of their lives, but it provides you with valuable insights into their thought processes. The workbook covers a wide range of topics, including personal and health information, family history, current and past relationships, employment, education, mental health concerns, personality assessment, and sexual history.

“Over the years, I’ve collected information about clients in many different ways using a variety of sources. I came to this idea: put all of what I think is the relevant information into one source. I see a number of uses for the workbook. One, for clients as an exercise in generating their history and getting them to look back at themselves and start doing some self-assessment. And then also very much for practicing clinicians who are doing intakes prior to treatment, and then also for evaluators doing court-ordered evaluations.”
- Steven Sawyer

Your Personal History encourages individuals to answer questions honestly and to the best of their ability. It also provides tips for answering questions and emphasizes the importance of taking time to recall personal history and significant life situations. The workbook can be used during treatment, or it can serve as a series of pretreatment exercises to build treatment readiness and the self-reflection mindset necessary for optimal treatment participation.

Your Personal History addresses these topics in individual sections:

• Personal and Health Information
• Reflections on Your Life So Far
• Family of Origin History and Your Life Growing Up
• Relationship History
• Employment / Work History
• Education History
• Legal History
• Addictions and Problematic Use of Alcohol, Drugs, and Gambling
• Mental Health, Counseling, and Personal Abuse History
• Personality Self-Assessment
• Sexual History
• In Your Own Words
  

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“The workbook is a very useful exercise. It can be given to clients in advance of an intake session. Some of these questions are difficult and very personal, and for some clients, it's easier to write it down and then come in and talk about it. For me, as a clinician doing intake, it's a significant time saver because they take the time to fill this out, and then I have a permanent record of it. And I can spend more time asking questions and clarifying and less time copiously taking notes.”
- Steven Sawyer

An appendix is designed to delve deeper into Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience. A supplemental questionnaire, “Detailed Sexual History for Forensic Settings”, is available as a free PDF to those who purchase the workbook.

Author background:

Steven Sawyer, MSSW, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and the founder and President of Sawyer Solutions, LLC, a distinguished private clinical and consulting practice. Steven has over 33 years of experience in the field and is a founding board member and Executive Director of a local non-profit treatment agency in Minnesota. He provides invaluable clinical and consultation services to individuals, families, and organizations and serves as a consultant on sexual abuse prevention. Steven has shared his knowledge through lectures and trainings, locally and nationally, and has an extensive publication record. He has facilitated more than 4000 hours of group therapy and treated hundreds of men who have committed sexual crimes. His wealth of experience and unwavering dedication define his impactful career.

You’ll find the Your Personal History workbook an invaluable tool for your practice.