Poetry Therapy

 

 

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. 

Poetry is a verbal art that has an aesthetic quality associated with artistic expression. Poetry has a distinctive style and rhythm and often touches physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and volitional aspects of life. Poetry is based on the interplay of words, feelings, emotions, ideas, experiences, and imagination.  It is a creative introspection and provides more connectedness. As Robert Frost elucidated poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

A poem is an emotional-intellectual-physical construct (Longo,2002). Poetry provides profound insight into human experiences and links with inner thoughts, deep feelings, and strongly held beliefs. Poetry helps to manage intense feelings. Poetic writing helps to connect with the inner self and extends to external connections with others and promotes self-reflection, facilitates introspective thinking. Writing poetry provides penetrating insights into individual experiences.

The earliest known examples of written poetry come from the Sumerian civilization, which dates to around 2,000 BCE. Poetry has been used for healing and personal growth since antiquity. The power of poetry is known for its therapeutic outcome. Writing poetry is a valuable therapeutic activity for people with mental health issues. It is an exceptional method to describe mental experiences and debrief emotions. It helps in self-expression and exploration of feelings, memories, emotions, and thoughts leading to cathartic effects. 

The therapeutic power of poetry has been known to men since the Greek Civilization. People knew the therapeutic benefits of poetry.  The ancient poet Homer: the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey knew about poetry’s healing capacity. Xenophanes (570 BCE- 478 BCE) was a poet who used his poetic skills to explain his philosophy. The Greek Physician Soranus of Ephesus in the first century A.D. used poetry and drama to treat his patients. According to Holm-Hadulla et al., (2010), the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) suffered from poetic melancholy, depressive episodes, and dysthymic phases and his poetic work helped him to curb his depressive thoughts. The English romantic poet John Keats (1795- 1821) had bouts of depression and poetry helped him to combat his despair. D. H. Lawrence assumed that writing poetry leads to self-understanding. The poet T.S. Eliot (1957) identified the healing qualities in poetry.

Poetry is not only an aesthetic expression, but it also has the potential to heal and transform. Therefore, poetry can be regarded as a form of therapy, and therapists can incorporate poetry into their treatment.  As an expressive intervention in the early 1800s, Dr. Benjamin Rush introduced poetry as a form of therapy to his patients. According to Gorelick (2005), Poetry therapy appeared widely in the late 1960s. 

The use of poetry therapy continues to grow. McArdle and Byrt (2001) state that poetry therapy is the intentional use of poetry for healing. Poetry therapy falls under the remit of Art Therapy and it’s an effective form of adjunctive therapy for the treatment of mental health problems (Hankir & Zaman 2015). Poetry therapy has spiritual and psychological benefits and brings coherence. Poetry therapy is an arts-based psychotherapeutic intervention geared to achieve healing and personal growth (McCulliss, 2011).   Poetry can be used as an expressive therapy to treat depression, anxiety, pain management, grief disorder, and stress-related conditions.

Poetry therapy is a narrative technique, and it gives exposure to innermost feelings and thoughts. It is a cost-effective and client-centered treatment mode. Kerner and Fitzpatrick (2007) elucidate that poetry therapy is a strength-based technique. Moreover, poetry therapy can be used as a motivational intervention and to establish therapeutic relationships.

People find Poetry as a mental soother. The therapy appeals to the rational brain and emotions.  In poetry therapy, the patients are allowed to express their emotional experiences and help to process their past trauma increasing their sense of effectiveness, reducing distress, and uplifting self-esteem. The patient has the possibility to reach the core of their illness. The patient achieves a sense of control and finds meaning in their deplorable mental health condition. Poetry therapy is geared to obtain positive transformation and help in recovery.

Poetry therapy helps to achieve emotional catharsis, and self-affirmation and enhances mental health. Poetic ability augments creativity, mental imagery, and self-expression and increases positive emotions. Poetry helps to access metaphor and helps the patients to express their deeply repressed sensitive thoughts. This therapeutic intervention enables reflection and helps in self-disclosure. 

Writing poetry has positive therapeutic effects (Sharma, 2020). Mohammadian and team (2011) indicate the therapeutic success of poetry therapy. Poetry therapy has the potential to provide greater self-awareness, promote emotional sensitivity, cultivate a compassionate presence, and provide a space to vent, reflect, and come to terms with their respective situations (Xiang et al., 2020).

The healing effect of poetry is seen in anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric disorders and are associated with a high burden of illness (Thibaut,2017). According to Alschuler (2006), Poetry therapy enhances insight and reduces anxiety. Poetry therapy promotes personal awareness and helps to revisit traumatic memories and process them. It empowers one’s emotional experiences, cleansing the mind and helping in self-discovery. Moreover, poetry helps to confront fear, intense feelings, and distressing memories. Poetry enhances emotional adaptation and desensitizes intrusive thoughts. Poetry therapy allows the use of symbols to express their unresolved mental conflicts, deep emotions, and distressing memories, hence providing a cathartic release. Brillantes-Evangelista (2015) proposed using poetry therapy as an adjunctive therapy in treating Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Poetry can help to cope with Depression. Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Poetry has the ability to enhance mood. Poetry therapy can be used as a therapeutic approach to reduce symptoms of mood disorders (Asgarabad et al., 2018).  Writing poetry alleviates symptoms of depression.  Mohammadian and team (2011 indicate that poetry therapy can reduce signs of depression. Poetry therapy helps to control negative emotions and gives the opportunity to reflect on their inner thoughts.

Treasure and Whitney, (2010) argue that poetry therapy improves rational perspective and increases a sense of control. Writing poetry increases the awareness of the sensibilities creating an image of experience, articulating the image, generating new meaning of the image, accepting a new meaning, and using it for self-growth, enhancing deeper healing. Poetry can help enable the expression of individuals' deepest unspoken concerns and can bring a sense of healing (Robinson, 2004).

Poetry therapy can be incorporated into pain management, especially in Fibromyalgia. Chronic pain exerts an enormous personal and economic burden, affecting more than 30% of people worldwide (Cohen SP, Vase & Hooten, 2021). Poetry can ease emotional and physical pain via altered focus, symbolic imagery, and regulating emotions and feelings. Lepore and Smyth (20002) indicate that poetry has a beneficial effect on managing pain, coping with stressors, and improving personal well-being.  Poetry produced an improvement in pain intensity (Arruda et al., 2016) and it can be offered as a supplement to other therapy.

Poetry can provide comfort in grief and loss. Grieving people need expression for their pain and emotions. Writing and reading poetry is one of the ways to cope with grief and bereavement and it helps to explore challenging existential issues. Poetry helps the person to grow beyond the loss experience and find meaning. Poetry helps to process emotional pain by using metaphors to communicate poignant experiences and put grief into eloquent words. It provides an outlet to release thoughts and emotions and achieve the coherence of life. Poetry therapy helps the assimilation of negative experiences and achieve post-traumatic growth. Poetry therapy should be considered as an adjunctive treatment mode in prolonged grief disorder.

Poetry is a mental soother in loneliness. Site and team (2022) describe loneliness as a fundamentally, social-psychological phenomenon. Loneliness and social isolation are detrimental to mental and physical health (Miller, 2011). Xiang and team (2020) highlight the ability of poetry to combat loneliness. Poetry helps to alleviate loneliness and social isolation. Moreover, poetry facilitates meaningful shared experiences (Gilmour et al., 2019).  As described by Mood (2018) poetry helps to boost communication skills.

Poetry therapy helps in recovery from addiction. Addiction is a growing problem and has a profound impact on physical and mental health. Poetry provides a means of processing and healing and leads to a space for free association. Poetry therapy helps to build confidence provides unrestricted expression and gives an opportunity to explore negative emotions. Poetry therapy deals with distress tolerance, and individual addiction-related dynamics and helps to decrease cravings. Howard (1997) indicates the effectiveness of poetry therapy in chemical addictions. Furthermore, Springer (2006) highlights poetry writing as a therapeutic collaboration in addictions.

Poetry therapy helps to express tension and negative emotions more artistically and is useful in anger management. Poetry is an antidote for negative stimuli, irritability, and negative emotions. Poetical writing deepens a person’s ability to connect to pent-up emotions and It helps to process internal conflict and repressed feelings. People with dysregulated anger can explore underlying emotions via poetry therapy and it provides a safe outlet providing a transformative effect.

Poetry helps people to understand and confront shame and guilt. Shame and guilt are negative self-conscious emotions, and it has a negative impact on mental health.  Shame is often accompanied by a sense of shrinking, of being small of worthlessness and powerlessness, and of being exposed (Stuewig et al.; 2015). Addressing patients' experiences of shame is an important part of the culturally competent treatment of mental disorders.  (Yakeley, 2018) Poetry helps to deal with the experience of shame and guilt in a more constructive way.  Poetry therapy enriches self-compassion and self-value and lessens shame and guilt. Poetry provides a sense of self-control and pride. It helps to reshape the negative perception, self-reflection, and enhance the self-identity.  Poetry helps to explore their feelings of shame and guilt. According to Tegnér and team (2009) guided poetry writing improves emotional resilience.  Zhang (2022) points out that poetry therapy improves positive personality traits.  

Poetry is a rich textual medium and a robust avenue for self-expression and self-guided therapy. Poetry is a powerful tool for emotional stability (Heimes, 2011). Poetic narrative enhances emotional disclosure. poetry can provide a new avenue for healing (Xiang et al.,2020). Mental health clinicians are exploring the potential use of poetry in mental healthcare. It can be used as an alternative or complementary therapy.   

  

Conclusion:

Writing poetry is a self-healing process and provides self-empowerment. It is an activity that is beneficial to mental health and wellbeing. Poetry therapy encourages patients to articulate complex emotions associated with their mental and physical conditions.  Positive treatment outcomes have been reported in poetry therapy.  Poetry therapy is recognized as a fruitful therapeutic tool. The research indicates that poetry therapy helps to mitigate anxiety, depression, and stress and enhances self-directed recovery. Poetry therapy should be used more extensively in clinical settings. It’s important to bring poetry therapy into evidence-based policy and practice.

 

References

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