Posted by DaisyM on September 16, 2004, at 10:38:13
In reply to Therapy/writing/stories?, posted by rubenstein on September 16, 2004, at 9:57:58
I am a writer in my soul and journal most of my impressions and feelings. It took awhile but somewhere along the way my therapist discovered that writing was a release for me and some of the deepest things that could not be said were being written. I remember the first writing I ever brought him, it was a conversation between the adult me and the kid me. It was pages long and I gave it to him but didn't read it. He read it and ended up with tears in his eyes.
From there, we've progressed to on and off readings and if I'm struggling with something he'll ask, "did you write about it, I'd like to read it." I also take him emails from over the weekend if a subject is being bounced around with friends. Once in a while I'll hesitate about reading him something...thinking I should express it free form, as you did. Usually if I tell him I've written stuff, he'll vote for reading it slowly, talking about it piece by piece. We've done well with this...often one piece will take a week to get through.
Because writing is a powerful tool for me, I also often get writing assignments. Some I've shared here, they were fun or thought provoking. We were working on expressing feelings at that time. I can choose to bring them in or not, depending on how I feel about them.
A few weeks ago I was trying to shut down the memories and flash backs. So I put myself on writing restriction for two weeks as an experiement. It was tough and I felt worse and worse. My therapist finally said he thought it was a failed experiment and that I needed to let myself write, to get those feelings out. And, to let the younger parts of me have their say. They often express themselves through my fingers.
I was thinking about how I would feel if I accidentally left something I had written. There are a few things that I brought but at the last minute decided not to give him. So I think it would be startling to have him find something. But it sounds like your therapist handled it so well and you had a good discussion about it. If this takes you to a deeper level of understanding, I think that is great. It also might mean you should both consider using your writings at times in therapy.
Can you tell this a subject near and dear to my heart? Thanks for sharing.
poster:DaisyM
thread:391465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040911/msgs/391482.html