Writing freely allows you to showcase your creative skills — there is no limit to how much you write and how you express your thoughts. As a step towards a better path, you have to realize your mistakes and understand if your actions have knowingly or unknowingly hurt someone. Letters are a good medium to let those people know how sorry you are because of your past behavior and how you may have done things differently, if given a chance.
You should also use this medium to write to your friends, family and other loved ones to strengthen your relationships — after all, a strong support system could certainly help you heal faster. Have you considered writing your own lifebook? This is a great way to combine writing as therapy with a practical way to set life goals and actually achieve them.
Mindvalley have released a great new program around writing your own lifebook. Check out our Lifebook review for more information. Traumatic experiences can lead to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. In this form of writing, you start by revisiting the episode that caused trauma and write about it — this can be considered as breaking the silence. And expressive writing also has a number of physical benefits: it can lower blood pressure, make people more active, ease breathing issues for asthma patients, etc.
In fact, as per a study, HIV patients who took up writing produced higher CD4 lymphocyte cell counts — a cell responsible for restoring balance in the immune system. People who keep a journal reflect on the choices they make and are able to see if they turned out to be good or bad.
This reflective process trains you to think critically and make better decisions for the forseeable future. An interesting fact is that reflective writing encourages empathy and directs people to be more sensitive towards different cultures. Gratitude journaling is another way to elevate self—realization by considering all the blessings in your life. With this form of writing, you can also show appreciation for the people who matter and how there will be a void in your life without them. They have survived it thankfully.
But the writing has been my therapy keeping sane and alive myself. It was very difficult to deal with. Thank you for sharing this. I too have used my writing as a therapeutic escape. This year alone, I have lost my year-old neice, my brother and my faithful dog. I do get lost in the process and feel some small release. Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I wrote about two difficult experiences in my life. They also led to a greater awareness of psychological causes that , I hope, have improved both my writing and my empathy.
I teach Creative Writing as therapy in a well-being centre, which was started by a local GP as part of a social-prescribing programme. I can honestly say the patients I have worked with have thoroughly enjoyed the course I developed and delivered and that it has helped them to begin to feel better, having previously suffered with anxiety and depression.
As a secondary school teacher, I cannot believe how rewarding I have found being part of this important work — I can tell you that teaching is a rewarding profession but this is something else! I now plan to go on to study for a Masters degree in Creative Writing for Therapy and set up on my own as a freelance therapist — something that never ever crossed my mind to do.
I love helping people and that is a must for any job I undertake. With Creative Writing, there is no end to the possibilities and paths it can take you and others. Thanks for the insight, which has been invaluable. This post has definitely helped me make myself a better person, in every sense of the word.
Now that I know what the problem is with me, I can finally tackle it on my own. Thank you so much for helping me find what was never lost to begin with. I appreciate it. I am currently waiting for a masters in Ed in Counselling program to start in July, Meanwhile, I am questioning if I really need to get this Masters.
I was working as a teacher at the time and have retired since then. Your comment about crying in the washroom is something I can relate to. I am redesigning my life and want to work as a counselor and use life writing as a therapeutic tool. I wonder if I could just take a course or two on how to use this tool with individuals and groups. Do you know of any programs that train a person to work as a counselor using life writing as a tool?
I am looking for a program that would equip me more quickly and less expensively. Any feedback you have would be appreciated. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.
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All rights reserved. Compose a letter. Sullivan suggested writing a short letter to a loved one. What makes writing therapeutic is telling the truth, Sullivan said.
And as Cameron writes in The Right to Write :. We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes it directly and specifically our own. We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance as well… We should write because writing is good for the soul… We should write, above all, because we are writers whether we call ourselves writers or not.
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