Writing therapy is about enhancing understanding of ourselves and how we see the world around us through our thoughts and feelings.
We use writing as a method of communicating. As we write we learn through our mistakes, it enables us to review our life. We start learning more about ourselves. We also can share our deep feelings through writing.
Writing therapy is a method where we allow ourselves to engage and find meaning in life. Writing relaxes us. We find out more about ourselves through writing and writing therapy.
There must have been times in your life where you have not been able to communicate your thoughts effectively. There must have been times where you wanted to have better communication skills. Writing is a form of therapy and it is a skill, it lets us create new channels of communication. We may have difficulties in life and to be unaware of what action to take. Writing will enable us to clear our thoughts and have a fresh start.
Sometimes writing is useful to get us through difficult times. Writing is a methodical way to enhance our life, and give us prospective on what is happening in our life. There are various forms of writing and whatever form resonates with you and helps you, can be enhanced. Writing therapy is a form of therapy in its essence.
There are challenges when it comes to writing. These are blocks such as feelings of worthlessness, not having enough material, not being interesting, not being creative and generally doubting ourselves. If and when this happens we need to tell ourselves to stop and review our writing and ourselves differently. Writing in itself is a process, it is a process of accumulation. We accumulate our skills, beliefs and values. We learn about ourselves and writing craft along the way.
Writing as a therapy is convenient for many people. This is because it enables the person to engage in what they are feeling while not being vulnerable doing so. Writing therapy releases negative energy and makes the person feel that they have achieved something.
There are many forms of therapeutic writing, such as personal writing, life writing, journal writing, and even fiction and non fiction writing, as well as many others. Generally speaking, writing gives person an opportunity to engage with the reader and to feel an achievement.
In therapy, mostly people are engaged in talking therapy. However in recent years writing therapy is also starting to be used and benefits individuals. These are such as online/chat therapy, text therapy and email therapy. Writing is used to help the client well-being through sharing their inner thoughts and feelings.
Also client can use writing as a tool to express oneself and to improve one’s well-being. This can be done by a person through journal writing, poetry, and writing ones inner feelings and thoughts. When doing this type of writing, one should write everything that comes to mind and therefore release negative energy. Writing therapy is usually focused on a problem and it is to help writer to gain better understanding of inner thoughts and feelings.
Writing therapy can create a foundation to the way we organise our thoughts and feelings. This can be a start to using relevant language tools to expressing ourselves. This will build confidence, empower us, and improves our creativity. We can use writing to be empathetic towards ourselves and others. Writing helps us to see the world from different prospective and also to be kind to ourselves. This is to realise reality as it is and to be able to face challenges by using writing as a tool.
Another aspect of writing therapy is writing itself. Writing provides us with better and improved language and more articulate we are, more able we are to express our unique individuality. Therefore by writing we expand our language tools and as a result we can express ourselves and ideas better.
Interestingly another part of writing therapy is therapy. Therapy in this sense has two parts one is the part where we communicate mental health and wellbeing issues and concerns. This is to try and heal ourselves of worries and concerns. Another part to therapy is the physiological act of writing where we are actively engaged to help ourselves and to improve our mood and wellbeing.
Writing therapy is a process and not a goal. Writing therapy does not have a goal of curing us from worries and to put an end to our life problems. The power it has lies in its process, where a person is engaged actively in the process of understanding oneself and the world around them. This process is not perfect as life is not. It is something we can do to improve ourself and our life. It is yet another tool we can use to better our life condition.
Writing therapy as a tool provides us with a more positive outlook towards life and our place within it. It impacts us in ways which we can positively influence ourselves and the environment around us. Overall writing therapy makes our problems smaller as we begin to faces our thoughts and feelings through a creative mean. Therefore we are able to construct something worthwhile from smaller components within our life. Our negative thoughts and feelings don’t necessarily contribute positively to our life unless we use these aspects of our life to construct something greater. Something that we can be proud of, and something we create through writing therapy.
Writing therapy is a process of creation, a creation of a life through our writing. This is our true prospective that has many dimensions. This process is true to us and makes us more aware of our state of being. It enables us to understand ourselves and our inner feelings better. Also through language and our unique creativity provides us with the opportunity to share our awareness with the world.
There are many means where we can share our writings with others. We can keep it to ourselves and also to show it to our future self. We can share it with our friends or family. We can share it with trusted individuals, and ultimately we can share it with the world around us. The individual is free to decide what to do with their writing, depending on the nature of their writing in writing therapy.
Writing therapy provides us with the ability to convey our meaning to others and to ourselves. Writing therapy is about communication and expressing ourselves. It bridges gap between us and the other person. This other person maybe even our future self. Writing helps us clear our mind, and to have an internal dialog with ourselves.
It enables us to reduce our stress and to plan our life better. It provides us with the tools for understanding our thoughts, emotions and feelings. There are a few types of writing that are specifically beneficial for our health:
- Poetry writing
- Free association writing
- Therapeutic writing
- Creative writing
The types mentioned above are beneficial as they target our emotion and cognition, and enhance our understanding.
Poetry writing
Poetry helps improve self awareness, it creates an environment where we learn more about ourselves. It enables us to work through our feelings and emotions. We can visualise and relive our experiences through poetry while creatively resolve our inner conflicts.
Free association writing
Using free association writing benefits us by providing us tools to face our inner thoughts and emotions. Using this method we write down what we think as quick as we think about it. There after after some time we can return to our writing and for every word we have written to come up with the first thing that we think. In this way we may be surprised in our thought and emotions, and it helps to resolve any issue or difficulty we may have faced.
Therapeutic Writing
In this method we can write as quick as possible about anything that comes to our head. We don’t need to worry about it being a literary work, and instead it is about writing what we feel. This form of writing is about putting in paper anything that comes to our mind. It enables us to write about difficult subjects that bother us and also it helps us to walk through our emotions without being worried about where it takes us. It is about being non judgemental about our thoughts and feelings.
Creative Writing
This method of writing provides us with more control. Creative writing enables us to create and to use abstract thoughts to convey our message. We can learn to come up with different methods to express ourselves and our feelings. It helps us to feel more self worth and to be able to grow via creative means. Also it is a useful method to learn more about ourselves and also to enhance our mental tools and abilities.