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Background: Ageing is an inevitable part of every life, confronting us with societal as well as individual expectations. Even though a new lifespan, the “young age”, which is driven by selfoptimation and flexibility, is defined, Eriksons question if life was/is meaningful is still asked. With certain life decisions been made, certain roads been taken and physical and/or mental difficulties, one of the tasks of ageing is described by Seiffge-Krenke (2023) as an “integration of identity- and relationship aspects from very different stages of life” (p-39).

Objectives: As Helbich (2015) writes, the unlived life is part of life. The workshop aims to find acceptance of this part, being curios and exploring it artistically to integrate it. What could have happened if one would have decided differently in a certain situation.

Methods: Aesthetic answering (Eberhard- Kaechele, 2011): one is answering aesthetically on a theme/problem instead of verbally

Decentering (Knill, 2005): a problem/theme is transferred into another medium like movement, music, poetry to gain distance and new perspectives.

Writing and Moving.

Workshop: A body and writing warm up is followed by reflections on everyone’s fork in the roads. You communicate one to a partner. This partner will design and write how your life could look like nowadays, if you had decided to take the other road instead the one you had taken. This will be the impulse for a structured movement exploration. With this body memory you turn back to the lifestory given to you and reflect on the implications of it.