Creative Writing for Mental Health

What does creative writing have to do with mental health?

I’m asked this a lot whenever I explain the work I do with Creative Support and the Creative Writing for Mental Health Group I run at Lambeth SPTT. ?I’ve been running these sessions for a couple of months now and have had so many questions and comments whenever I mention them. People are curious about the use of arts and creativity for well-being and mental health, and are keen to try out techniques and exercises themselves. For me the link seems clear; writing is a way of maintaining my well-being, making sense of my thoughts and expressing myself. It’s also fun, for the most part, as well as cathartic. I’ve always thought of myself as a writer and writing has been one of my primary methods of “sorting my head out” throughout my life. My first undergraduate degree was in creative writing, while I wrote my psychology undergraduate dissertation on reflective journal-writing. One of the themes my participants talked about was how putting nebulous thoughts and feelings into language, with narrative and grammatical structure helped them to make sense of things (we called this ‘unjumbling’ in my dissertation). I’m hoping to carry on this theme of writing as sense-making in my master's dissertation (supervisors willing!)

Three of your five ways to well-being

So when the opportunity to develop a group as part of my peer support work came up, I proposed a creative writing group for our service users. I put together a proposal for the trust, based on research into the benefits of writing and creative expression. Working within a well-being model, attending a group like this accomplishes social connections, reduces isolation and increases positive interactions with others. As we’re a group of peers we have some shared lived experience of mental ill-health, treatment and being service users, so the group aims to be supportive, understanding and often have things in common. The writing exercises we do involve new skills and engaging the brain in creative ways, learning new vocabulary and ways to express yourself (one of my participants was diagnosed with dyslexia as an adult, and our group is the first time she has picked up a pen in twenty years!) Writing brings you into the present moment, particularly when we drop into our bodies to describe our inner states, while contemplating a prompt or describing an item involves using your senses and being mindful.

What the group members said:

I asked some of the participants what they thought about our group, and one of the resounding things they told me was “My illness is not the biggest thing in my life”. This shift of identity, from a person who experiences distress (or illness, in the language they used) to a person who is also a writer, a creative person, was described as being positive, therapeutic and improved self-esteem.

One of the participants describes the benefits of having a routine, the need to leave the house to attend and having something to look forward to. We all enjoy the group and each other, so it is delightful to walk into a room knowing everyone there is pleased to see you. I check in with the group members if they don’t attend, and just a simple gesture like someone enquiring after them if they miss a session has been really important in building a relationship with them.

Unconditional Positive Regard as a Feature

After each writing exercise, I invite the group to share their words, reading aloud parts they particularly liked of their work, as well as sharing pieces they’ve written in between sessions or for homework. Unlike a traditional writing group, this is less about constructive feedback and more about sharing work in a supportive environment and receiving positive validation. It’s been remarkably easy to tell people how much I love hearing their work because I am always struck by how talented, thoughtful and brave the other members are. Making/ creating something you can be proud of is really positive for self-esteem and maintaining wellbeing. As I am trying to keep to a non-hierarchical group structure as much as is possible, I provide “prompts” or invitations to write, and then I write and share alongside the rest of the group, so I also receive this same warmth and validation from the others. One thing I have noticed is how it feels to be really listened to – we don’t experience this in the same way in the rest of our lives, but when you are sharing a story or a poem you have been working on everyone in the group pays attention and reflects back, it makes you feel truly heard. I know from my counselling training how important this is in therapy, and I really notice how we don’t do it in the same way in casual conversation.

I hope this provides some insight into why I'm so passionate about writing and creativity as a way to achieve and maintain mental health. I'm planning some more posts about the kind of exercises we do, or maybe how to set up a group like this and some of the things to consider - let me know in the comments if that's something you'd want to read.