Expressive Writing for Trauma

Writing--preferably while working with a mental health professional--is a powerful strategy for understanding your own emotional trauma. There is a substantial body of research that supports expressive writing to release trauma and improve how we process issues that compromise our quality of life.

Expressive writing can be a private act. The whole point is to turn feelings into words that no one criticizes or tries to shame. Unless you share, no one will see your writing but you. If you worry that someone might see it, you still reap the benefits of the writing if you destroy the document when you are done.

Be kind to yourself

If you have had serious trauma in your life or have PTSD, be gentle with yourself as you write. Pay attention to whether you are really ready to put pen to paper. Set yourself up in comfortable surroundings, with everything you need for emotional and physical support.

I recommend that you pop over to the Moon Emissary blog for excellent advice on setting up your space and dealing with the emotions that come up when you are writing about trauma. I'll give you the nitty-gritty science about why this is good for you, but her page offers a warm and supportive approach for your writing practice.

She says t0 expect to be triggered, but that the writing should not re-traumatize you. Throughout the writing process, check with yourself and watch for indications that you need to pause the writing. These include changes in breathing, heart rate, mood, and increased anxiety and tension.

Moon Emissary also recommends a decompression routine after spending time exploring trauma. She suggests engaging in positive activities like yoga or being outdoors for at least half an hour after the writing session.

Try this method

One way of structuring this kind of writing is the Pennebaker Paradigm. Researchers have found excellent results from this exercise. To follow the protocol, you would use the following prompt, for 20 minutes at a time for 4 days straight. Don't try to fix the feelings that come up. Just write continuously for the allotted time.

Over the next four days, I want you to write about your deepest emotions and thoughts about the most upsetting experience in your life. Really let go and explore your feelings and thoughts about it. In your writing, you might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents, people you have loved or love now, or even your career. How is this experience related to who you would like to become, who you have been in the past, or who you are now?

Many people have not had a single traumatic experience but all of us have had major conflicts or stressors in our lives and you can write about them as well. You can write about the same issue every day or a series of different issues. Whatever you choose to write about, however, it is critical that you really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts.

Or something else

Although the Pennebaker Paradigm is very successful, Pennebaker himself says that expressive writing doesn't have to follow those precise rules to have the same mental and physical benefits. He suggests that you commit to writing for a minimum of 15 minutes a day for at least three or four consecutive days, or a fixed day and time for several weeks (for example, every Thursday evening for this month). You can choose to write about the same thing in every session or something different each day.

This is more like a brain dump than any writing you would do for school. It is all about the process, not the product of the writing. Once you start writing, you write continuously, not worrying about spelling or grammar, or even making sense. If you run out of things to write about, repeat what you have already written.

Future-oriented prompts

If you are ready to move on from processing the past, Laura King's research suggests that you may find even more improvement in mental and physical health with more positive and future-focused writing prompts. Her study used this prompt:

“Think about yourself in the future. Imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly could. Think of this as the realization of all your life dreams. Now, write about what you imagined.”

Emotional & Physical Benefits

The mental and physical benefits of expressive writing are clear. When we get the secrets of our pain down on paper, even when no one else reads it, our bodies release pent-up stress. Studies show that expressive writing offers long-term physical benefits, including improved immune function, reduction in blood pressure, lowered heart rate, and, ultimately, a reduced need for physician visits.

How does this happen? Pennebaker and Smyth's succinct statement says it all: "Keeping secrets is physical work." When you keep a secret, you have to work to hold back the words, thoughts, and behaviors related to that secret. The body cranks up its "fight or flight" systems, increasing sweating, heart rates, and the other responses a polygraph test measures. Like all kinds of chronic stress, long-term repression affects all parts of the body-- including musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems. That means illness ranging from asthma to stroke. The harder you have to work to keep feelings inside, the more physical damage takes place.

Hanging onto our emotional secrets also disrupts thought processes and can cause memory and attention problems. If we don't translate traumatic experiences into words--through writing or talking--our minds have difficulty organizing thoughts about the event. According to Pennebaker & Smyth, "One reason we often obsess about a disturbing experience is that we are trying to understand it." While our brains are busy obsessing about trauma, we don't have the bandwidth to think about everyday things. So memory suffers. We have a hard time dealing with everyday tasks. Living life sucks.

I'm not saying that writing will fix everything that ails you. But I hope that you add these tools to your coping toolbox. Writing allows you to open up about the grief and anger that comes with trauma and can help you envision your best possible future even while holding that pain are two tools to add to your coping toolbox.