In psychotherapy various problems, disorders and personal difficulties are addressed. Psychologists who practice psychotherapy (the best known form of “psychology”) must be very creative in choosing, creating, or adapting the tools they will use to provide “the right clue. ” One of the most used techniques in psychotherapy is writing, so in this article we will explain how it is possible to use writing as a therapeutic tool.
There are different ways to enjoy the benefits of writing, but they all agree that they seek to externalize mental content, such as thoughts, doubts, desires, goals, goals, plans, as well as feelings and emotions. All this without a professional guide or advice is not therapeutic, that is, making a standardized and ritualized writing with guidelines is what makes writing therapeutic.
- While writing as a therapeutic tool can be used in various situations and reasons for consultation.
- It is a recommended technique for a specific patient and problem profile.
- First.
- It is a recommended technique for patients with sufficient reading and writing ability to cope with In other words.
- They should be people who are not anxious about the need to write.
- Who are able to perform the task without feeling incapacitated or inferior.
In this sense, we mean that the task must be a “safe bet”. If we know that the patient has the necessary skills, but do not believe that he is able to write for therapeutic purposes, it is necessary to work on aspects such as self-esteem, self-concept and self-efficacy. Once all these personal features are improved, we can use writing as a therapeutic tool.
Second, writing helps many patients who have difficulty verbalizing what is happening to them, what they feel, think, or want; for these people, writing is a way to leave what affects them without pressure or shame. Writing about thoughts, feelings and desires is also one of the best ways to sort them. In this way, the chaotic leads to clear and manageable ideas. That’s why it’s very good to enjoy the benefits of writing for very introverted people.
Once it is clear that the patient can perform therapeutic writing tasks, the task should be tailored to their particular case. The most common situations in which writing tasks are chosen are as follows:
In addition to being used in situations that are part of clinical psychology, i. e. where there is a diagnosis, writing can also be used in coaching and personal transformation processes. When it comes to setting goals and developing an action plan to achieve them, writing is the best tool. Do you have it in mind?in the magazine?what you want to achieve and think about how to achieve it is also a motivational strategy that frees up attention resources, allowing you to focus on what you really need to do.
Writing as a therapeutic tool is used for specific purposes. On the other hand, among the most common tasks, we find three categories: letters, phrases or messages and newspapers. Letters are widely used in psychotherapy; the most common thing is to ask the patient to write a letter to himself or to write to someone or a symptom, the patient is invited to express everything he thinks or feels in this letter, and then everything that has been written is elaborated during session therapy.
On the other hand, phrases or messages are used that are almost always addressed to the person and try to remember important personal qualities, such as a form of self-motivation and avoid tripping over the same stone as always. You are asked to write in a post-it and post that message or carry that phrase or message in your wallet so you can use it to recharge your motivation when you need it.
Finally, we also have the agendas. With such tasks, the patient should write every day on a specific topic (which should be carefully selected). In this way, the patient can also see for himself the evolution of his problem, its improvements and its changes. For writing to be therapeutic, all content written in the journal must be worked on in a therapy session with the psychologist in session. This is the moment when we can make the most of this tool.