Creative Writing

Sometimes it's easier to write something than to say it out loud. The voice is very intimate, very aesthetically under-distanced. Writing gives you distance; you can step back, polish the words till they're just right. Also, writing can be a process of discovery, of "writing your way in" to an insight or an understanding. And writing -- especially poetry, but also stories, letters and essays -- can be rich in metaphor.

In terms of the four dimensions, creative writing provides a range of aesthetic distance, but tends to be more distanced than close. It is also low in embodiment. Writing can run the gamut of literalism and metaphor, and provides great safety while permitting deep probes.

Interventions

Here are some therapeutic interventions involving writing:

Progressive poetry -- hand out pages with "starter lines" to everyone in the group. Each person adds one line of poetry to their page and passes the page to the right. When the page has gone all the way around the circle, the poems are complete. This is a great way to get a "temperature" of a group, and to create cohesion and closeness within a group.
Letter writing -- write a letter saying what you could never say face to face. Write letters to people who are dead, or unavailable, or too high-risk to confront. Write letters to abstract concepts and internal processes ("Dear depression: I'm breaking up with you...")
Fairy tales -- this is a great way to express metaphorically. Write your own fairy tales, either individually or as a group, either on the page or improvised out loud. Puppets help loosen up the story-telling muscles.
Journaling -- there are so many ways to work with journals. You can have dialogues with parts of yourself, or with other people. You can do stream-of-consciousness journaling. You can journal on a theme. The possibilities are endless.
Comics -- write and illustrate your own comic. This is great for kids and teens.

Personal tools

Creative Writing

Interventions