Creative writing for therapy is essentially a technique that can help to unravel and explore your thoughts, feelings and experiences. You don’t have to be a writer to benefit from this. Just a pen and paper.
Many people have kept journals for years to capture their thoughts and indeed journaling is one tool in the writing therapy toolkit. However, there are so many different tools, techniques and prompts that can help people discover more about themselves, help explore difficult issues, think about where they are in life, what is good and what is still hard to talk about. Writing for therapy is so much more than just keeping a journal. Song lyrics, lists and poems just touch the surface of different writing prompts.
The beauty of therapeutic writing is that there are no ‘grammar’ rules. It’s not about grammar, form or style. It doesn’t have to rhyme, words don’t have to be spelt correctly, make sense or ever be seen by anyone else. It’s about writing from the heart and what makes sense for you. It’s writing without thinking – or at least that’s what it can feel like.
Benefits can include