by Nathan Field

Writing, like all creative endeavours, is by its very nature a self-healing activity. Writers discovered this fact centuries ago in composing  their poems, stories, memoirs and novels.  As  D.H.Lawrence put it,‘One sheds one’s sicknesses in books, repeats and presents again one’s emotions, to be master of them.’ Another novelist, David Grossman, recently remarked that  in coping with the impact of his son’s death ‘writing acts like a cure to an illness, a way to give me back the person I used to be, me… I cannot grasp how this miracle works.’The philosopher Wittgenstein went even further: ‘‘I really do think with my pen, because my head often knows nothing about what my hand is writing.’

Although writing goes back to the dawn of civilization, only in the last twenty years has it begun to find a recognised place in the practice of psychotherapy and counselling. Because writing really does heal, writing group leaders are now employed in hospitals to help speed recovery from both physical and mental illness. Other writing facilitators work in further education, including medical schools, to enhance student self-development. All this currently happens in face to face situations. But with the invention of the Internet, we have entered an era where the full potential of Online Therapy is  barely imaginable.

The earliest reliable research into therapeutic writing was directed by Prof.James Pennebaker some thirty years ago. In Pennebaker’s  original experiments   groups of   his students were directed to write for 20 minutes on 3 consecutive days on the worst traumas of their lives. An equal number were asked to write only of   trivial matters.

In those who had written just trivialities there was no change. But those who had done the brief trauma-recall exercises showed a sustained increase in personal well-being, reduced blood pressure and  a measurable strengthening of their immune system. Moreover all these improvements lasted.    ‘Taken together ,’ Pennebaker concluded,’ these studies are all painting the same picture: writing about emotional experiences can have positive effects on physical health, biological activity and behaviours.’   Pennebaker’s research confirmed what writers have known for centuries.

The oldest, and most widely practiced, form of therapeutic writing is a personal journal. Not just a diary of daily appointments, but the place where the writer habitually records his/her  most meaningful thoughts, fears, hopes  and memories.  It is therapeutic because, in the very act of writing, the writer releases pent-up feelings, but also has to think. This  initiates a shift from the  habit of just reacting to life’s events  to reflecting on them.

Journal writing has long been a powerful method of regulating our moods. It can certainly help to put a brake on those obsessive ruminations that keep us awake at night. If, instead of obstinately struggling with a mass of ideas churning around inside your head  you take the trouble to write them down, the visible  presence  of your written thoughts  out there on the page  helps you to get them into order and focus. One troubled patient of mine recently made the discovery that once she started writing she could stop cutting herself., Since something bad inside me just had to get out, She wrote better it is ink  than blood’.

Writing Therapy Online

In the last twenty years cyberspace has become populated by a multitude  of individuals who  have come together in mutual support groups. For those with personal problems  - teenagers, adults and the elderly- the Internet offers a particular combination of access to and distance from professional help. Hitherto this has been available only to that small minority of people able, or willing, to visit a counsellor.

But thanks to the  Internet it has now become possible, from the privacy of one’s own home ,to communicate with a  practitioner anywhere in the world. The Internet offers not only direct access to professional help but  personal anonymity. The  majority of troubled individuals are, initially,  deeply reluctant to meet a counsellor face-to-face.  For all these vulnerable individuals – teenagers for example - the value of the computer is that it doesn’t have eyes to see you with, or eyebrows to signal disapproval!

The Writing4Healing Online Therapy Programme

Thanks to the invention of the Internet, this  short-term personal therapy programme is now available for those who are struggling with the effects of trauma,  depression, panic, bereavement, desertion, abuse, personal loss etc. Tailored to each individual client, it  aims at  enhancing each client’s capacity for self-healing ,through insight and personal support.  It uses the Internet in three ways:

1.Firstly in  Email Exchange, where the counselor and client communicate by email at, say, fortnightly intervals.  Usually the client does most of the writing by answering in-depth Questionnaires, as well as doing Writing  Assignments . These can take the form, for example, of writing letters to selected individuals, alive or dead, with whom the client has  serious unfinished issues. Although none of these letters are actually sent, writing them seems to have a profoundly releasing effect.

Answering the Questionnaires has proved equally powerful. Simply having to think again about the facts of one’s personal history and then writes them down, can offer a whole new perspective on life. This is further enhanced by the clarifying input of a trained counsellor.

2. Secondly, there is the Email Dialogue approach, where the counsellor  and client enter a ‘chatroom’ and engage, there and then, in a text-based  conversation. This provides a unique combination of contact and privacy. Neither party sees the other  but reads only their words. And these words can be re-read to reflect on later.

3. Thirdly, the Writing4Healing  Programme offers the option of live talk for those who prefer it. Personal dialogue provides that  direct link which  many practitioners  and clients  find essential to the healing process. Talking  can be by telephone,  or via the computer, which has the advantage that it  costs nothing to install and run. As a therapeutic method, writing plus talking would appear to form a powerful combination.

In addition the Writing4Healing Programme requires participants to keep a personal Journal, at least for the duration of the Introductory 12 week Course. The aim is to promote reflection , and diminish blind reaction, through the habit of writing.

Certainly there is still a great deal to learn about the therapeutic action of writing, but it is becoming increasingly clear that writing really does heal, and that whoever writes, grows.