A young boy I recently worked with, 11 years old, was having a very difficult time adjusting to school, the rules, discipline and self control.
Giving him a constructive place to vent his anger, forgive his abusers, and
release old memories helped tremendously. I stumbled upon something in one of our sessions that I think was very valuable.

I have a long roll of butcher paper that I use when I need a really big piece of paper.  When he saw the roll standing on end in the corner of my
office he asked me what it was for. (at that moment I didn't know what we
were going to do with it) I asked him what he thought it was for.... and he
rolled it out across the floor of my office. We now had a 20' long piece of
paper ready. I looked at it, and it seemed obvious to me that it was a
timeline.  I didn't tell him that. So at one end we drew a sun. I said that
I thought the sun should come up at the beginning of our adventure. It
should seem like a new day. At the other end we drew the moon and stars, and the end of the journey. Then I asked him to draw the road, or the timeline of his life from the sunny beginning to the peaceful end.  

Now the fun began.  We marked off the years, drew objects that represented events in his life, even those old boulders and dirt from the first five years. We furiously drew the dark and cloudy smear that represented the darkness in his past, and then drew a new sunrise at the point where he was adopted.  Who says you cant have two sunrises in your life? We make the rules!  

The most interesting thing, to me, was how we could see the future right
there on paper. We placed events that were about success, love, health,
babies, behavior, bedwetting, getting old, having grandchildren, being
talented and recognized, etc.   For him to see a bright and exciting future
will give him the motivation to make today better. It will also give him the ability to continue to put the past in the past. 

I think that this time line work with children could be very valuable. As
adults we know the power of journaling and how helpful it is to put our
emotions onto paper. For children it is not as easy, since they don't have
the writing skills to express the feelings. I suspect that the feelings are
very vivid for him in the colors and heavy scribbles of the first few years.  The mind now knows where those feelings are (in the past) and what
they look like and how much better it feels to look to the future than the
past. Also important is the perspective it gives you when you see 19 feet
of paper of what lies ahead, in relation to only one foot of paper that
represents the past.

Adults would probably enjoy a timeline that can be seen and felt, worked on and updated creatively.