Balkan Beats 32
Writing Therapy How writing can help the treatment of mental health issues by Valerio Vagnoni
“Writing the right thing will not mean that there will never be painful or even intensely dis-
tressing parts of your writing. There will be. There should be. Unfortunately, these will be the right things at that time. All of us have memories, fears and horrors buried inside which cause problems either some of or much of the time. We can choose to live with these issues, and the problems they create, for the rest of our lives and not face the pain of examining them. Or we an choose to undertake an exercise like therapeutic writing.� (The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing: Writing Myself - Dr. Gillie Bolton, Therapeutic Writing specialist)
The use of artistic activities for therapeutic pur-
poses is nothing new: painting, drawing or dancing are only a few examples. The reason behind the success of these practices lies in the catharsis that can be achieved through the expression of our artistic soul. Our minds are focused on something different than our problems, helping us to reach a better mental balance.
A probably less known kind of therapy which
does not require any special skills is the so-called Writing Therapy. This is, in other words, the use of writing to overcome traumas and other psychological issues. The therapy can be administered by a therapist during an either collective or individual session, and, in that case, the patient
A writing session
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Š writingatqueens.qc.cuny.edu
will be instructed regarding the themes and topics he could write about. Alternatively, we can do it by ourselves in complete anonymity. It is not necessary to be a good writer or to worry too much about the style or even the correct grammar: what is most important is simply to put your feelings and emotions on paper, especially when they relate to a specific traumatic event.
When performed individually there are no specific rules to follow. You can just grab a pen and a notebook and start writing about anything that pops up on your mind, releasing a free stream of consciousness. Nevertheless, there are some important things that should be kept in mind.
First of all, it is essential to be completely sin-
cere in the writing process: it is indeed a unique opportunity to express feelings and emotions in a way that we might have never felt comfortable to do before, and it cannot be wasted lying to ourselves. We should not put any limitation or boundary to our narration, leaving it free of judgment or prejudices.
Furthermore, we should be consistent and try to write at least for 10-15 minutes every day. It may be hard to be able to keep such a pace, but
