Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 13 Number 2, August 2012
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Thompson, Kate, Therapeutic Journal Writing: An Introduction for Professionals. London: Jessica Kingsley Publications, (2011). Pp 222. ISBN9781843106906, Paperback Price £17.99.
Writing Routes: A Resource Handbook of Therapeutic Writings. Bolton, Gillie, Field, Victoria, and Thompson Kate, (Eds.), London: Jessia Kingsley Publications, (2011). Pp238. ISBN9781849051071 Paperback Price
Reviewed by
Mohawk College, Hamilton, ON Canada
Therapeutic Journal Writing: An Introduction for Professionals and Writing Routes: A Resource Handbook of Therapeutic Writings are complementary texts that advocate writing and journaling as a method for deepening and developing the creative process, problem-solving, decision-making, planning, as well as for personal and professional growth. Each book serves as a guide to the fundamentals of using writing in various clinical and non-clinical environments. While there is overlap between editors and authors, each book reveals its own distinctive voice and does not necessitate the reading of one before the other, or even both. However, collectively, these texts harmonize key concepts, theories and approaches to therapeutic journal writing, in addition to procedures, activities, techniques, personal stories, professional contexts and writing examples that guide the reader through the practice of writing where “writing and reading involve us in fluid processes” (Bolton, 15), and where “keeping a journal is a journey into the self and with the self: it is also a record of a life lived” (Thompson 27).
What pleasure there is in the creative word. What surprises, what liberties. How much like our lives, how unexpected, frustrating and glorious. And while it may be that we wish simply to dance our creativity without thinking too much about it, it may also be that in reflecting on how we use words to shape our worlds, we are privileged in noticing the ways in which creative writing inevitably involves creative reading of our experience, ourselves, our environment and our ways into the future ( Bolton, 16).
So begins Writing Routes: A Resource handbook of therapeutic writing edited by Gillie Bolton, Victoria Field and Kate Thompson. As therapists in, and researchers of writing for personal and professional development, these three women have a plethora of knowledge regarding the subject. Yet, they refuse to shamelessly flaunt their own wisdom; instead they invite over 70 contributors, ranging in roles from educators, therapists, counsellors, mentors, healthcare professionals, poets and playwrights, to sing their experiences, explorations and reflections on writing as a therapeutic and creative process. Such a wide array of voices results in a well-crafted resource invigorated by the energy of personal story.
The themes covered in Writing routes are diverse: ancestors, family, childhood, relationships, spirituality, dreams, bereavement, illness, imagined futures, mythology, nature, reading, therapies, finding a voice. The writing styles discussed are just as variable: description, dialogue, freewriting, fiction, poetry, playwriting, journals, memoirs and life writing, lists, letters, re-visioning, and writing from different art modalities. Yet, a systemic pathway unites each entry in an anticipated format of personal reflection on a writing process leading to the sharing of one particular piece of writing as that process was later re-worked into a finished outcome or product. The consistency of this structure keeps each chapter concise, focused, contextually unique and individually intriguing as “the writing told me a truth: of that I am sure” (147). While the repetition of such structural bones could become monotonous, the variety of themes, genres and personal voices illustrates this type of writing as a powerful extension of self leading to deeper understandings of the relationships with the self and the world.
Writing routes engages its readers in the contributors’ personal journeys with the writing process while opening a space for the reader’s own imaginative leap from the story being told to his/her own writing scenario; thereby, indeed making the text a worthwhile resource of practiced activities. In this manner, readers are invited to follow the contributors’ exploration of writing as both therapeutic and creative. Furthermore, the book’s strength lies in its collaborative tone as readers share in the processes that worked for the contributors as they navigated life’s turbulent and deep waters. The editors clearly recognize that journalwriting – whether in a group or solitary environment – is empowering, cathartic, transformative and potentially daunting at first (13). Whether they struggled through someone else’s pain or their own, whether they searched for new directions or the greater meaning of paths already travelled – the contributors involve the reader in a well-focused adventure through writing exercises that lead to their personal and/or professional achievements.
Thompson’s book, Therapeutic Journal Writing, is indeed more of a professional text than Writing Routes. In that sense, it serves as an important guide for the professional engaged in the development of a writing curriculum or program for professional use. While the variety of exercises can be used on a personal level, as demonstrated in Writing Routes, Thompson clearly uses her instructional persona to initiate the professional in journal writing as a therapeutic tool. To this end, the book is divided into four parts: part one provides an introduction to therapeutic journaling’s background, history and key concepts; part two describes structured writing techniques; part three moves to unstructured writing techniques; part four provides further examples for clinical and non-clinical settings as well as some cautionary advice. Thompson’s structure and guidance expertly conveys the centrality of journal writing as a tool “to understand the self in greater detail and depth, . . . as a tool for healing and growth, . . . and how it could help us to understand the world of our own experience” (26).
Kate Thompson, undoubtedly, broadens the perspective of journal writing beyond the teenage diary; her agenda is clearly clinical, or institutional, as opposed to personal or creative. Kathleen Adams , Director of the Center for Journal Therapy in Denver CO., states that journal therapy, and Thompson’s book, satisfies four key therapeutic tasks: “the development of insight; the recognition of appropriate expression of emotions; the engagement in the healing process; and the self-reliance to resolve one’s own problems” (12). Thompson herself states that therapeutic journal writing “implies the conscious intent and deliberate attempt to write in a way which will produce change, healing and growth. Therapeutic journal writing takes particular writing techniques and uses them to support the tasks of therapy” (15). In this regard, Therapeutic Journal Writing differs drastically from the more inclusive agenda of Writing Routes. Simultaneously, Thompson also cautions that the therapeutic journal group should not be mistaken for a “therapy” group although the issues that arise in therapy can likewise arise in any writing environment.
Despite the instructional nature of Therapeutic Journal Writing, the text, ultimately, shows writing to be a powerful as well as empowering medium for personal and professional transformations regardless of the setting. Correspondingly, Writing Routes explicitly reinforces this message by celebrating the autonomy of the writing process as opposed to our product- driven society. Thus, the process – whether creative, cathartic or therapeutic – can be an end in itself. Writing Routes liberates writing from the realm of the literary, or even the therapeutic, by demonstrating writing to be a universal and accessible tool acting as witness to our lives. It reminds the reader that writing – in any form or style or setting – is an organic and authentic practice.
Both Therapeutic Journal Writing by Kate Thompson and Writing Routes edited by Bolton, Field and Thompson, demonstrate writing as a witnessing of our lives, a voicing of that which can not otherwise be said, a feeling that carries us forward and backward in a loop of self-discovery, self-awareness and creativity. Significantly, both texts demonstrate writing, in any context, to be a valuable “way in” to the self and a better understanding of the complexities surrounding the human condition.