Writing for Therapy, Self-awareness and Health

While the phrase may have you running for the hills, since you are here now...please stay a while and ponder upon the potential for you of this incredible FREE tool.

Keep an open mind and consider fully what opportunites writing for therapy presents for self-awareness, growth and comfort on your own happiness journey.

I really liked this quote from Gillie Bolton, author of The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing:

'I couldn't trust a therapist the way I could a piece of paper. Paper's always there to reread or rewrite. Once you've said something you can't unsay it, but with a page of writing you can. You don't ever have to share it. You can burn it if you want.'
Gillie Bolton, Kings College, London

Research has shown the benefits of writing for therapy for groups as diverse as Vietnam veterans and psychiatric prisoners to deal with their personal trauma. Writing can boost the immune system and has been shown to ease symptoms of specific illness, such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Cancer patients and their carers and families are also benefiting greatly from the therapeutic benefits of writing.

Writing for Therapy - some Examples from Readers.

• Contemplative Writing
This reader, Emma took a moment of contemplation :
- to notice her immediate environment at a specific point in time, and to pen the internal thoughts and feelings that arose. Though not specific about the details of the 'realisation' she notes the moment of awareness.

'What now? What next?'

It was the middle of Spring. She had risen early. The half light was calming and welcoming. The birds were in full song from their vantage point on rooftops and trees. Staring at a huge green conifer hedge the full width of her visual field, she pondered on 'what now, what next?'

Everything was quiet outside, except for the occasional passing car, speeding its way to wherever. The footfall of commuters making their way to the nearby railway station broke the silence momentarily as they crossed her 'window on the world,' and then were gone. Now a couple of joggers, clearly chatting and laughing as they bounced along, and a solemn yet purposeful young man in a grey dufflecoat travelling in the opposite direction.

The silence continued. She felt calm and pensive, yet strangely alone, as though nothing existed outside of that moment and the green motionless vista that presented itself. She likened it to gazing at a photograph for ages and ages, not seeing what was there, but not questioning either, what might exist beyond ... and ...behind that mighty hedge.

Peeping from above the hedge she became aware of the sky, a light grey-blue blanket with little or no variation or definition. No clue as to how the day would turn out.

'How fortunate to have the time to sit and watch the world go by.' She sensed at that moment, somewhere in the back of her mind a subtle change. That sentence, that passing thought struck a chord with her and ever-increasing activity crowded out her thoughts as the morning grew later. It was lighter now and the rest of her world was waking too. What now, what next?

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Writing for Therapy /Self-awareness
• Change in 'State' or Mood.
This second example was prompted by the reader's self-awareness of a change in mood or 'state.' In sending the piece Jane tells me of an awareness in her head of a lowering of mood. In this instance this brief piece of writng brought her a resolution ...see the last line

Random Descent?

'My therapist listens silently.....and I can be funny, snide, introspective, accusatory, sarcastic, helpless, brilliant, sentimental, profound, caustic, inspirational, opinionated or vulgar. My therapist accepts all of this without comment, judgment, or reprisal.'
Kathleen Adams
(founder of the Center for Journal Therapy in Colorado)

A feeling of hopelessness descended on her as a cloud drifting to earth, enveloping all in it path....a candy-floss blanket obscuring her vision, yet intangible, having no substance, unable to grasp a handful and sense it fully... nothing there but the proverbial 'thin air.' Her being ached for a meaning and purpose which would lift her from this heart-sinking moment. Irrational?..yes, but real.

The day had yielded little fulfilment, though she had been limited only by her own choices. And now to decry that use of time and ask for something in return? There is no going back, time does not replay. When it is gone, it is past and over, only memories remain.

Her body felt low, lethargic and lost. To her left, through the open window darkness had begun to fall outside... and all around her the half dark crept ever nearer, slowly and stealthily, as though a cat stalking its prey. And yet even with this realisation, it felt calm, non-threatening and ...still hopeless. So what she thought, do I care? This realisation was enough, no need to wallow in the feeling, or examine it further. Its presence was felt and duly noted.

There was a comfort in that darkness. Comfort that this day was coming to a close, nothing more to do, but succumb to its peaceful security. Accept, welcome, put the matter to bed and awake refreshed and eager to welcome the new day.

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5 Great Things about Writing for Therapy, Self-awareness and Health

1. Trust yourself - know that there is no one way and no right way to write
2. Spelling and grammar are unimportant - write freely, let your thoughts flow and materialise there on the paper
3. You can re-write, edit, add to or subtract - it's for your eyes only.
4. Use it to discover and explore what you think and feel, and examine issues from a position of empowerment.
5. Write poems, drama, questions, explore your dreams.

I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by the wisdom and knowing you gift to yourself through writing. If you care enough about yourself then engage in the deepest conversations you may ever have. It couldn't be simpler and really is worthwhile.

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