How narrative writing can be good for mental health
Illustration by Heedayah Lockman / IllustrationX
by Andrea Rosenhaft
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If you have ever written a story about yourself or an event in your life, you may have found the experience to be cathartic — especially if the story involved a problem you were facing. You may have even felt inspired to “rewrite” your life story in a sense, by reflecting on insights that only you can bring to the framing of your own story.
According to the Dulwich Centre, this practice, known as narrative therapy, helps to engage in ‘re-authoring’ the stories we hold and tell ourselves about our lives. Narrative therapy is a form of counseling that allows clients to achieve relative distance from their issues. It takes the stance that people have numerous strengths, skills, and abilities that will empower them in reducing the impact of problems in their lives.
James Pennebaker, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, has done groundbreaking research on narrative writing in his book Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions.
“Writing helps construct a narrative to contextualize trauma and organize ideas. Until we do this, the brain replays the same non-constructive thought patterns over and over and we become stuck,” Pennebaker says.
Heedayah Lockman
Narrative writing was the key in my own journey to healing from anorexia. I’d been anorexic for two decades with multiple inpatient admissions when I signed up for a class at a local writing center. The first piece I wrote, titled “Sharp Edges,” for the bones that jutted out from my body when I was emaciated, detailed my journey with this insidious illness. My instructor suggested I submit this essay for publication to a journal with a theme of illness and healing and it was accepted. Seeing my name in print gave me a high that rivaled the high I got from seeing the numbers on the scale drop. Buoyed, I continued to write and submit my essays to literary journals. Over the course of the next year, I realized I had to make a choice. My psychiatrist helped me to realize writing well was incompatible with a malnourished brain.
I chose writing. Life has not been a linear ride, but writing has been a constant companion, instrumental in maintaining my sanity.
Rita Charon, Ph.D., founder and executive director of the Narrative Medicine MS program at Columbia University, states that “sickness and healing are, in part, narrative acts. Patients write about their illnesses with increasing frequency, which suggests that finding the words to contain the chaos of illness enables the sufferer to endure it better.”
As a person writes their story, they develop their “narrative identity.” According to one study, “narrative identity is a person’s internalized and evolving life story that integrates their reconstructed past and imagined future to provide a life with some degree of purpose.”
Heedayah Lockman
As I moved forward in my recovery from anorexia, I continued to develop my narrative identity as a recovering anorexic who is now a writer. Early into my education as a writer, I attended a week-long intensive summer program at a liberal arts college in Westchester, N.Y. Sitting in on a panel discussion consisting of writers and editors, I tentatively raised my hand and asked how you know when you can call yourself a writer. One of the authors leaned forward and answered kindly, “If you write, you’re a writer.” That response enabled me to further shed my identity as an anorexic patient and confidently move forward with my identity as a writer.
To directly quote this study published in Sage Journals, “Research into the relation between life stories and adaptation shows that narrators who find redemptive meanings in suffering and adversity, and who construct life stories that feature themes of personal agency and exploration, tend to enjoy higher levels of mental health, well-being, and maturity.”
Everyone has their own story and their own potential narrative identity. Writing is one way to make sense of that story and develop that narrative identity. As the recovery paradigm shifts to one of empowerment, more people are clamoring for their stories to be heard. Narrative writing serves two purposes: to allow the person to comprehend their feelings in new ways and, additionally, to be heard. As the stigma that exists around mental illness diminishes and the theme of recovery becomes more centralized, people have been benefiting from speaking out and writing about their journey. They’re not the only ones who benefit, though. We all get a little closer to authentic living — and the liberation that comes with it — each time stories are told through a lens of compassion rather than shame.
Narrative writing resources:
Dive deep into narrative writing with this guide from the New York Times.
Check out this piece on narrative writing from Grammarly.
Take a free online course from the Dulwich Centre on narrative writing.
Explore these 19 techniques and worksheets for narrative therapy.
Hop over to YouTube and check out Writing Your Way to Better Health with James Pennebaker and Professor James Pennebaker – Be Your Own Therapist With Words.
Watch this thorough explanation of narrative therapy by Dr. Diane Gehart.
Read What is narrative therapy?: An easy-to-read introduction by Alice Morgan.
If you haven’t read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, perhaps this is the right time.