(Originally published at Degrees of Maternity on January 12, 2023.)

The following 5 sentences aren’t included in the 25, so don’t start counting  just yet.

In this blog post, I’m attempting to break down therapeutic writing into a few bite-sized nuggets of information — just to give you some insight into the world of Degrees of Maternity for the upcoming months. We’re going to explore this method of writing and its life-changing properties. We’re going to put in some purposeful work with the written word. And, we’re going to look forward to the healthy results that stem from the exploration and work.

Okay, now you can start counting with the next sentence.

Writing therapy is a form of expressive writing, where you write down your thoughts, feelings, and emotions associated with problematic and even traumatic situations you’ve experienced in life.

This type of writing is DEEP and forces you to dig up some of those deeply-rooted thoughts, feelings, and emotions that need to be addressed.

The outcome of this writing should lead to progress in working through issues that haven’t been alleviated or resolved in your life.

Writing therapy is widely practiced by mental health professionals in counselling their clients; however, expressive writing such as this doesn’t have to be administered and monitored by a professional.

You can administer writing therapy to yourself in the comfort of your own home.

It’s writing to heal.

The writing can be done individually or in a group setting.

Many people choose to use the “for their eyes only” approach to writing therapy because of the very intimate information that’s uprooted from doing such deep-cleansing writing.

However, some choose to share their writing with others, to include: mental health professionals, family, friends, accountability partners, those involved in the healing process for those individuals, etc.

Just remember that some of the information that comes out in your writing shouldn’t necessarily be shared with others; it’s for your healing purposes only.

You set yourself up for writing therapy success when you . . .

• Write with the mindset that you’re writing to help yourself not make yourself feel worse.
• Write daily with a writing therapy timeslot (set or flexible) that works with your overall schedule.
• Set a time duration in which to write regularly where it doesn’t seem like work (15-20 minutes a day may be all you need).
• Make sure to tuck away the distractions during the time that you’re therapeutically writing.
• Get something to write in and write with that works well for you (like your favorite writing utensil and a unique notebook/journal just for your expressive writing).
• Sit down with your computer and put fingers to keys if the flow state for your writing therapy works better with that format.
• Find a private place to put your writing for safe-keeping.

And yes, I’m counting the sentences that were bulleted (above), but not this sentence. Hee. Hee.

Writing therapy tends to be guided with a certain writing prompt to be addressed in each session.

But, freeform writing (whatever comes to your mind and you feel led to write about) can be therapeutic, too.

Writing therapy not only brings positive improvements to your mental state, but it can also result in positive physical and spiritual results, as well.

Let’s just face it: therapeutic writing is holistic in nature.

Therapeutic writing is a way to communicate when verbal communication is difficult.

You don’t have to be a writer, as in a professional writer, to benefit from writing therapy.

Writing therapy is for all ages — from the young child to the adult in his or her golden years.

I LOVE THERAPEUTIC WRITING and even talked about it in a blog post, entitled Blogging Truths Be Told: Blogging Can Be Therapeutic (dated November 19, 2021).

Guess what?

You can stop counting now. I think I delivered what I promised in 25 sentences about writing therapy. I hope it helped give some clarity as to what we’ll be doing in 2023.

Are you ready?