Benefits of therapeutic writing: documented and personal experience

As I used therapeutic writing (also known as expressive writing) exercises to untangle my own obstacles and to hopefully get to a more fulfilling and satisfying life, I discovered some key benefits right away:

• Being able to take a close look at past trauma and troubling memories and events without coming unhinged

• Being able to function after each writing session

• Feeling released from debilitating shame

• Feeling more focused and productive

• Feeling more positive

Many studies have documented benefits. Whole Health: Change the Conversation* lists the following findings from various studies.

“Expressive writing has been found to produce significant benefits for individuals with a variety of medical conditions including:

• Lung functioning in asthma

• Disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis

• Pain and physical health in cancer

• Immune response in HIV infection

• Hospitalizations for cystic fibrosis

• Pain intensity in women with chronic pelvic pain

• Sleep-onset latency in poor sleepers

• Post-operative course”

“In addition, it can be helpful for assistance with specific life circumstances, including:

• Break-up with life partner

• Death of loved one

• Unemployment

• Natural disaster

• General stressful events”

Emmerik, Reijntyes and Kamphuis’s 2012 meta-analysis “investigating the efficacy of expressive writing for treatment of acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder and comorbid depressive symptoms found:

• Significant and substantial short-term reductions in posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms

• No difference in efficacy between writing therapy and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy”

These findings resulted from people following J.W. Pennebaker’s guidelines for writing 15 to 20 minutes a day for four days.

*Developed by the Integrative Medicine Program, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health in cooperation with Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, under contract to the Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, Veterans Health Administration