As a therapist, you can imagine that I am a big proponent of the role therapy can play in one’s life. It is such a great tool when we have the opportunity to engage in it. But I'm also a big proponent of taking charge of our own healing and growth! Therefore, when I come across evidence-based actions that people can take into their own hands, I am thrilled! And am motivated to share with you. Therapeutic writing fits the bill: it is an activity you can do on your own, with zero financial cost, and is well supported by research.
When someone has experienced difficult events in their past, the often traumatic nature of these events can have a lasting impact. Writing about these challenging events has been shown over and over again to be an effective way to process these painful past experiences. The specific therapeutic writing process I outline here may reduce your distressing symptoms, help you gain deeper insights, and shift its continued impact on you.
Pennebaker’s Expressive Writing Process
This process came out of research from the field of social psychology. James Pennebaker is a social psychologist who developed the simple but powerful writing exercise he called Expressive Writing to help people process difficult or traumatic experiences. In one of his major studies, Pennebaker asked participants to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings related to a traumatic event for 15-20 minutes a day across four consecutive days. The participants were encouraged to be completely unfiltered as they wrote to make sense of their experience.
When I heard about these results, I was stunned! The people they studied who wrote about their difficult experiences resulted in better physical health (measured by fewer doctor visits and a stronger immune system), improved mental health (measuring less stress, anxiety, and rumination), and greater long-term resilience in coping with trauma.
Pennebaker found that putting one’s feelings into language helped people organize their thoughts, gain helpful insight, and release emotions. This ultimately lightened the mental and physical burden of the experience. This is compelling and encouraging research that has been repeated numerous times with similar positive results.
One of the anecdotes Pennebaker shares that really stayed with me is that during the following years, he would occasionally bump into former participants, some of whom were students at the time of the study. They clearly remembered him and their experience in the study. They made a point to share with him how impactful those four days of writing were for them, how much it shifted their feelings about the events they wrote about, and expressed their deep gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the study. I love this poignant detail.
Could this writing process be helpful to you?
This writing process may be helpful to you when memories of difficult events from the past continue to intrude into your current life. These are memories that stick with you, intrude into your thoughts, and continue to stir up your distressing emotions. This writing process may be a way for you to take the reins of your healing into your own hands and shift your current experience of these memories. After you complete this process, it can be helpful to talk about your experience of this process in your regular therapy sessions.
Note that, of course, some painful memories and experiences will be more challenging than others, and may require specific trauma-informed therapies to help shift them. If this becomes evident due to ongoing distress, there are plenty of options you can discuss with your therapist for specific support.
One of the reasons to engage in this kind of writing process is to help integrate the traumatic memories from the past into your story of who you are. A challenge with traumatic memories is that the nature of trauma can prevent the integration of these memories into the story you tell yourself about yourself.
One beautiful aspect about this writing process is that you are completely in charge of it. Because you are 100% in charge of this process, you can stop anytime and decide that it is not for you.
Take very good care of yourself throughout this process!
The Expressive Writing Process:
This writing process requires approximately 1.5 hours per day, for 4 days in a row. Important: This process does require these days to be consecutive. Plan to engage in this process when you know writing four days in a row as possible.
The writing part of the process takes approximately 30 minutes each day. However, I suggest scheduling one additional hour afterwards to relax and sit with any feelings that might come up. It is important to not rush off to something else afterwards. Give yourself a gift of spaciousness for this project.
Choose a private, comfortable, safe space where you will not be interrupted.
Choose either typing or writing long-hand on paper with a writing implement of your choice.
Begin by doing some kind of a grounding exercise for a few minutes: deep breathing with your eyes closed, or whatever grounding exercise fits for you. Be sure this grounding exercise includes some noticing of the sensations in your body, such as feeling your feet contact the ground, or a body scan. The goal of grounding is to bring yourself into the present moment for this process.
Set a timer for 20 minutes and begin writing.
Begin writing about the event that continues to cause emotional pain and sticky memories. Start wherever you like, but write continuously. Do not worry about spelling or grammar. Starting with the deep feelings the memories stirs up can be helpful: describe them. You can write about the circumstances of the event, the chronology of the event, the thoughts you still have about the event, the thoughts and impressions you had at the time, the impact the event had on you and continues to have, the emotions you continue to feel, your feelings about your feelings, describe any images, write down thoughts you keep having about the event, including thoughts about yourself or any other people involved. There is no right or wrong way to write about these past experiences. No one will read your writing — this is private to you. It is OK to repeat yourself, as long as you keep writing continuously for 20 minutes, right until the timer goes off.
At the end of 20 minutes, do another grounding exercise. This time, really pay attention to your sense of safety in the room, reminding yourself that you are currently safe. Ensure this grounding exercise includes some noticing of the sensations in your body, such as feeling your feet contact the ground, or placing your hand on your own heart and breathing into it. Be extremely gentle and kind. toward yourself.
After doing this writing exercise, be sure do something relaxing and nourishing for yourself: go for a walk, take a nap, do some light stretching, etc.
Do not share your writing with other people – it is private to you. Keeping it private ensure you will feel free during your writing process. Many people like to save them for future reference, others like to rip them up or burn them. Some people find it helpful to bring them to their therapy sessions to discuss them with their therapist in a confidential space. Your therapist will not read your writing (unless you ask them to), but will ask what you noticed, what you wish to share, or and what you noticed during the writing process.
Repeat this writing process for all 4 days. Write about the same general event on all days, but also allow yourself to follow whatever comes up as you write. For example, you may end up relating the event or feelings about the event to other aspects of your life in your past or other people. Write about what comes up.
If you find no therapeutic benefit or relief and the distress continues in the following weeks, this may be an indication that it is time to work on this topic in your therapy sessions in a more in-depth way.
While taking on this writing exercise may not be everyone's cup of tea, for many people, it can be an incredibly empowering experience to find a process they can use on their own, observe shifts in their own experience of distressing memories, and reduce how much it intrudes in their current life.
References
1. Pennebaker JW. Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science. 1997;8(3):162-166.
2. Smyth JM. Written emotional expression: effect sizes, outcome types, and moderating variables. J Consult Clin Psychol. Feb 1998;66(1):174-84.
3. Frisina PG, Borod JC, Lepore SJ. A meta-analysis of the effects of written emotional disclosure on the health outcomes of clinical populations. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Sep 2004;192(9):629-34.
4. Baikie KA, Wilhelm K. Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Advances in psychiatric treatment. 2005;11(5):338-346.
5. Lepore SJ, Greenberg MA. Mending broken hearts: effects of expressive writing on mood, cognitive processing, social adjustment and health following a relationship breakup. Psychology & Health. 2002;17(5):547-560.
