Writing Therapy

According to Matthew Tull, research has shown that journaling may help people with PTSD to better cope with symptoms of PTSD such as anxiety and anger. In addition, he notes that “we are learn that traumatic events may lead not just to post-traumatic stress, but to post-traumatic growth.”

In other words, there can be silver linings and experiencing trauma may help you change in positive ways as well. Expressive writing has been found not only to improve the symptoms of PTSD and coping with them, but it also appears to help foster post-traumatic growth, or the ability to find meaning in and have positive life changes following a traumatic event.

There’s a Hawaiian expression called “Talk Story” that means to chat informally or to shoot the breeze. It can also be described as a rambling personal experience. It’s like a soup of experience, culture, myth, history folklore—whatever is true for you goes into the story. It’s all part of it. The end result is an important act of tapping into and expressing the wisdom of your own experience.

For this journal exercise, you are doing just that, tell your story in your own words, however it comes out on the page. Make it yours. Maybe you explore something specific about your trauma experience and revisit this each time you write, or maybe you want to tell the whole story from beginning to end in installments, giving the details in chronological order, or not. You are both author and audience, so it doesn’t have to follow any specific format or meet any writing standards or guidelines, other than the ones you choose.

Follow these steps to begin your Talk Story practice:

1. Find a quiet time and place where there are going to be few distractions. Don’t be concerned, however, if there is some noise, or if you only have a short period of time. Some people find that writing at a bus station, on a bus, or even during a five-minute break during the day is very helpful.
   
   
2. Take a few minutes to think about how your PTSD or traumatic event has impacted you and your life.
   
   
3. Begin writing about your deepest thoughts and feelings regarding your PTSD or the traumatic event you experienced. If possible, write for at least 15 minutes. (Note, this is ideal, but again, any amount of time is often helpful, especially if you find it hard isolating this amount of time every day.)
   
   
4. Once you’ve finished writing, read what you wrote and pay attention to how you feel. Notice any changes in your thoughts or feelings as a result of writing.
   
   
5. Although long-term benefits of writing have been found, writing about your PTSD or traumatic event will naturally initially bring up some distressing thoughts and feelings, so make sure you have a plan for how to manage your distress: https://www.verywellmind.com/coping-with-ptsd-2797536
   
   
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5, writing about whatever aspects of your PTSD come up for you, every day, or at least several times a week. It has been found that writing about the same topic consistently over a period of time can help organize and improve the clarity of your thoughts and feelings about a stressful event. You may be surprised at the clarity that journaling can bring.
   
   Excerpted from “How Journaling Can Help with PTSD” by Matthew Tull.

Thought stopping is a technique learned in psychology, including sport psychology, a skill taught to athletes to prevent negative thoughts from snowballing and interfering with performance. How does it work? Whenever a negative thought comes to mind, rather than grabbing on and following the usual thought pattern, instead one verbally or non-verbally tells the mind to “Stop!” while simultaneously visualizing an image associated with stopping, for example a red stop sign, red traffic light, or a traffic cop holding up their hand to indicate a “stop” gesture. Choose whatever image you like. What’s important is your belief in the practice and your commitment to stop yourself from biting the hook so to speak and suffering the worst effects of your trauma.

Keeping a log can be one more effective way to chart your progress. Keep a journal and log each and every time you use Thought Stopping for self care.

In one of her books, Buddhist teacher and author Pema Chodron cautions against using affirmations without self-reflection. She describes this practice as avoidance and humorously makes light of it, saying that in this way, if we can just say our affirmations loudly and often enough, maybe it will drown out the nagging voice of anxiety just below the surface. To be clear, this is not recommended!

The practice of saying affirmations and expressing gratitude in no way negates the reality of our experience or emotions. Used conscientiously with an intent to be self-reflective, affirmations can honor our trauma while helping us to establish new thought patterns leading to growth, what Matthew Tull calls a “silver lining experience.”

Activity: Affirmations

Start a journal and write down some affirmations you’d like to say to reinforce your best qualities and strengths. You can use whichever affirmations work best for you. Write a few down and then say them out loud or to yourself every morning when you wake up and throughout your day. The Buddhist meditation teacher Thich Nhat Hanh offers these examples from his book Peace is Every Step:

*Breathing in, I calm my body; breathing out, I smile.

*Breathing into the present moment; breathing out, I know it’s a wonderful moment.

*Loving Kindness Prayer: May I be happy, may I be peaceful, may I be free of suffering. Note: You can also offer this prayer to your friends and loved ones, substituting their names when you say it.

Activity: Gratitude Journal

Much like the affirmations, this activity enables you to focus on something positive about your life.

*Start by getting a journal (this can be a paper journal, a computer file or an app, whatever works for you).

*Set out a day and time to write in your journal and write something every day, or as often as you can. You can write a paragraph, a page or a single sentence.

Write down what you are most thankful for.

*Keep it simple. Just write down what you’re grateful for each day. It can be a person, a pet, something you enjoy like coffee or a walk in the woods, anything at all.

*Be specific. Instead of just writing “I’m grateful for my family,” think about specific things your family members do to show you love and support.

Take a moment and read what you’ve written; just breathe and allow yourself to feel whatever this brings up for you.

At the heart of the affirmations is an emphasis on positivity and gratitude. Take some time to think about what brings you a sense of peace and joy, or what once did if you’re not feeling it now. Then each day wake up and focus on one specific intention to bring more of this into your life. Pema Chodron calls this practice “One at the beginning, one at the end” (82 Always Maintain a Joyful Mind).

Start your day with one intention. Write it down. Set an alarm on your phone (use whatever notification system you like) a few times throughout the day to remind yourself of it, and to stop and check in to see how you’re doing. Maybe you want to be more patient, or stop negative self-talk; choose whatever focus you like. Then at the end of the day, check in with yourself about how you did. Write a paragraph or two about your experience. No judgement. Just notice how it went, and then let it go. Tomorrow is a new day, and you can begin anew.

I had a colleague, a professor of Psychology, who talked about the tendency of the human brain to focus on the negative. She said that for every one negative experience we have, we need five positive experiences to balance it out. To put it another way, that one negative experience weighs or impacts us as much as the five positive ones. Add trauma to the equation, and the scales are tipped even more. To help counter this, practice the rule of focusing on what you want, not on what you don’t want. So, for example, if I want to make new friends, rather than assuming you’ll be rejected, or that I’ll only be disappointed anyway, or that it will all go down in flames, get clear about exactly what you want. Visualize it. And then get out your journal and write about it. Write about what you’d like to see happen in your life. Address any doubts or fears you may have about it and how past experience figures in. But then allow yourself the luxury to focus on the positive. The Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzburg describes this practice as standing in a dark room with a flashlight. You can only shine it on one part of the room, so why focus on the scary thing in the corner when there are wildflowers growing on the other side. The beauty of it is that we get to choose. 

Here’s a short meditation from the late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh to help you set the stage:

What’s Not Wrong?

Often we ask, “What’s wrong?” Doing so, we invite painful seeds of sorrow to come up and manifest. We feel suffering, anger and depression, and produce more such seeds. We would be much happier if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. We should learn to ask, “What’s not wrong?” and be in touch with that.

Awareness of the precious elements of happiness is itself the practice of right mindfulness. Elements like these are within us and all around us. In each second of our lives we can enjoy them. If we do so, seeds of peace, joy and happiness will be planted in us, and they will become strong. The secret to happiness is happiness itself. Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, and the wonder of our breathing. We don’t have to travel anywhere else to do so. We can be in touch with these things right now.