What is Expressive Writing?
This method of writing is as effective as therapy
Expressive writing is the practise of writing out thoughts and feelings related to a particular troubling or traumatic life event. The purpose of expressive writing is to help one process the emotions associated with a difficult situation. It has be proven that this method of writing can be just as helpful as the best treatment for PTSD.
It surfaced as a unique and effective method of processing trauma after the psychology professor James Pennebaker discovered that writing about trauma or difficult times had an effect on his study participants. It was found that the participants who wrote about a troubling memory for 15 minutes per day for 4 days ended up visiting the student health centre less than those who didn’t. Not only did these participants have reduced levels of psychological stress, they were also less prone to troublesome symptoms of physical illness: expressive writing was helping to build their immune systems.
I wasn’t aware of the term “expressive writing” or the study carried out in the 80’s by James Pennebaker before I began writing about my own instances of psychological torment. All I knew is that I had this overwhelming urge to outpour my emotions onto paper, to rid them from my brain; writing was always a source of comfort for me and this is what I turned to when I needed a release. The more I wrote, the more I discovered things about myself that allowed me to gain clarity and a deeper understanding of my pain. I was no longer the person in the story—in the centre of the struggle—I was the person looking in with curiosity and a wider perspective.
This switch from the main character of my trauma to the narrator of my life was one I nurtured alongside exercise, life coaching, nutrition, cold water immersion and little treats (filling my space with scented candles, potent wax melts, buying new pretty decorated journals, booking spa days, etc). I started to create a life that would nurture me whilst I flung open the floodgates of my past in order to let it wash delicately away, rather than completely drown me. Expressive writing—delving into the depths of your pain—is not an easy process, but it is a necessary one if we want to move forward.
“You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them.”
Expressive writing can be practised many ways: 15 minutes of automatic writing (writing whatever comes out) in the morning or evening everyday, set journal prompts you sit down to do at the end of the week, crafting your thoughts into a blogpost, or enrolling on a course designed to help you move through your pain. Whichever method you choose it is recommended that you also have external support networks in place to lean on. Expressive writing can bring up a lot—as much as it is effective in helping you to process your emotions in order to move past them, it can also bring up uncomfortable feelings as we are writing and even cause us to feel as though we are experiencing the situation again, therefore having outside help and other methods of self-care in place is a necessary part of this deep work.
There is no time limit to expressive writing, common practises involve short periods of daily journaling, but I suggest no longer than a month of focus on it. It was noted in the Pennebaker study that even 4 days of daily writing for 15-20 minutes has a profound healing effect. I think it’s important to find a method that works in line with your needs as an individual but to also not get too bogged down with thinking you have to write a lot. I’d also recommend that if you’re someone with multiple instances of trauma then working through one experience at a time and having a break before you move onto working through the next situation would be appropriate.
The idea of the practise is to write down all of the things that you may be holding onto: things that are too uncomfortable to speak aloud. This means connecting with feelings and thoughts you have not dared to explore before which can be difficult to notice within your body. In week two of my four week course, Healing Through Writing, I direct my participants to the feelings wheel. The feelings wheel is a great tool to use if you are having trouble identifying the words to describe what feelings are coming up for you. It can help us connect deeper to our emotions and accurately identify how we are truly experiencing our troubling event or situation. When we correctly identify our feelings, we are then able to experience them by allowing the truth of our emotions to be there in all of their fullness.
Having gone through several practises of expressive writing and gone onto have my personal stories published in Stylist, Business Insider and Metro, my favourite part of this process is realising I can finally let go and allowing myself to do so with grace. As we process and move away from our pent up emotions, such as rage, despair and fear, we are then able to experience a stillness and newfound love and appreciation for our journey. I had so much self-love enter my life after I allowed myself to truly feel into all of my uncomfortable, heavy emotions. I found that by holding onto my past story, I wasn’t allowing the present version of me to truly flourish and appreciate all that was around her because I was looking at everything through a past lens.
“Once you realize you deserve a bright future, letting go of your dark past is the best choice you will ever make.”
Expressive writing is the foundation for how deeply we let go. If we have the strength to face our trauma, difficult situations and unhelpful narratives, then we can finally allow ourselves to fully let go and embrace the new version of reality that fits who we currently are.
