Writing your Way to Well-being (Students)

Psychological research has shown that expressive writing – in particular writing about yourself – can enhance your mood, improve your physical health, lift your grades and even boost your memory. Writing helps us focus and organize our thoughts around emotional upheavals and health setbacks.

As part of a PhD in Creative Writing I wrote a book called Shy: A Memoir (Text Publishing, 2014) in which I explored the shame and distress I had experienced dealing with chronic social anxiety, and the grief I felt following the traumatic end of a long-term relationship. The experience of putting these feelings of distress into words had a profoundly therapeutic effect on me. I am passionate about sharing the knowledge I gained during this cathartic process.

My aim is to encourage students to develop regular life-writing practices to help them cope with the emotional and physical challenges they will inevitably confront as they grow into adulthood.

Topics:

Shortened session:

• The therapeutic benefits of expressive writing
• Finding the ‘story’ in your ‘situation’
• Writing as catharsis
• Writing the ‘dialogical self'

Extended session:

• Developing emotional literacy
• Gratitude journals and hope journals
• The therapeutic benefits of expressive writing
• Finding the ‘story’ in your ‘situation’
• Writing as catharsis
• Writing the ‘dialogical self’