Writing and the Broken Child: Expressive Writing as a Coping Strategy for Childhood Trauma
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Faculty Mentor
Amy Gerald, Ph.D.
Abstract
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, thousands of children face a traumatic event every day; how they perceive these tragedies can determine their future outcomes. Through psychological studies and personal experience, I will demonstrate in this paper how expressive writing is a positive method for coping with traumatic events. A pioneer of writing therapy, James Pennebaker, reveals that traumatic events that are kept secret will result in more health problems. This is why expressive writing is so successful: it gives people the opportunity to manifest their trauma on paper without having to let others know about their trauma. The writing process makes a child think about his/her traumatic experience and how to grow from trauma. Dr. Pennebaker validates the process of expressive writing; making feelings graspable and turning traumatic experiences into language is what makes expressive writing a positive method in coping with tragedy. When a child experiencing trauma can translate his/her thoughts onto paper, that child can then begin to heal from tragedy. Many psychological studies were performed using expressive writing; the results all showed a minimum of sixty-seven percent improvement in suffering children, both mentally and physically. The creative writing class I teach, for middle school students who have been taken away from their home, reveals a vast improvement in the students’ writing abilities as well as a confidence in themselves. Expressive writing is a social outlet for children; in addition to helping them deal with their current trauma, this technique may help them in the future.
Start Date
24-4-2015 2:05 PM
Writing and the Broken Child: Expressive Writing as a Coping Strategy for Childhood Trauma
DiGiorgio Campus Center, Room 221
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, thousands of children face a traumatic event every day; how they perceive these tragedies can determine their future outcomes. Through psychological studies and personal experience, I will demonstrate in this paper how expressive writing is a positive method for coping with traumatic events. A pioneer of writing therapy, James Pennebaker, reveals that traumatic events that are kept secret will result in more health problems. This is why expressive writing is so successful: it gives people the opportunity to manifest their trauma on paper without having to let others know about their trauma. The writing process makes a child think about his/her traumatic experience and how to grow from trauma. Dr. Pennebaker validates the process of expressive writing; making feelings graspable and turning traumatic experiences into language is what makes expressive writing a positive method in coping with tragedy. When a child experiencing trauma can translate his/her thoughts onto paper, that child can then begin to heal from tragedy. Many psychological studies were performed using expressive writing; the results all showed a minimum of sixty-seven percent improvement in suffering children, both mentally and physically. The creative writing class I teach, for middle school students who have been taken away from their home, reveals a vast improvement in the students’ writing abilities as well as a confidence in themselves. Expressive writing is a social outlet for children; in addition to helping them deal with their current trauma, this technique may help them in the future.
