"Writing as Therapy" is a not a magic answer for all emotional and
health difficulties.
In truth it's hard. I know because I've tried it. I and a number of more
well-known writers
and artists have found, however, that as in life, going through difficult
passages is often
worth the perils along the way. This number includes, among others, Anne
Sexton,
William Carlos Williams, and Samuel Beckett [more information on them and
others
will be available on resources, along with my statement on this process for
me. See also
the items described at my site for art, poetry, and webart by people with
chronic illness
Metaphor/Metonym
for Health.
My work at crash was part of
this process].
Writing is useful for health problems and it has been found to impact general
health
(James
Pennebaker
- see Opening Up
: The Healing Power of...which I've read - did
much of the original research documenting that emotional
expression had initial adverse effects but then led to positive outcomes).
There are several major exponents of writing and art in treatment for physical
and/or
emotional problems. They include Lucia Cappucione -
The
Well Being Journal : Drawing upon... among other books, Ira Progroff
At a
Journal Workshop : Writing to..., Nicholas Mazza
Poetry
Therapy: Interface of the Arts... and Gillie Bolton -
The
Therapeutic Potential of Creative... , among other books.
As a psychotherapist and member of The
National Association for Poetry Therapy and
the American Psychology Association , I would
recommend caution in doing this on
your own without consultation with a health-care professional, even though I do
plan
on posting suggested exercizes at times and will be posting examples of work I
get
from those who care to post work here. (trbell@home.com)
The quality of the writing does not matter. What does seem to matter is what is
expressed (emotion) and how it is expressed. Not too much and not too little,
with some
structure, but not too much (see Willam Carlos Williams on this aspect), just
write and
then think of the form.
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