The Trendsetter

Writing as way of healing

Chapter 1 – why write?
Chapter 2 – how writing can help us heal
Chapter 3 – writing as a therapeutic process
Chapter 4 – writing pain, writing loss

Part Two

The process/the program

Chapter 5 – the healing power of the writing process
Chapter 6 – caring for ourselves as we write
Chapter 7 – stages of the process, stages of growth I
Chapter 8 – stages of the process, stages of growth II

Part Three

From woundedness to wholeness through writing

Chapter 9 – writing the wounded psyche
Chapter 10 – writing the wounded body

Epilogue

From silence to testimony

As you see, from the titles, each chapter is about using writing as a way of healing. The author also emphasizes writing about our painful memories will help us get it over or feel liberated. She emphasizes that writers who are able to write well about psychological wounds are those who’ve experience such first hand - like childhood abuse, depression and other serious illnesses. One of her significant examples is the life of Virginia Woolf. Writers like Woolf have an advantage since they are the primary witness to their pain and suffering in their lives.

My question is, what about the writer who never had childhood abuse, depression, other mental illness or other significant trauma, but would like to write fiction or a memoir? I think, they write because they have more of a passion about wanting to share their story and much less so if it as a form of healing. I remember my late professor (who was a prolific writer) told me that he went to a physical place where there were no modern entrapments like electricity, etc. to help him feel miserable in order to write about his character that is experiencing psychological pain.

In conclusion, writers who’ve experienced psychological trauma in their childhood or as an adult, have an advantage over writers who never experience a serious mental or physical illness. I do believe that writing will help them to heal or at least distract them from thinking or harming themselves due to the unbearable pain they suffer. On the other hand, the writer who doesn’t have a traumatic experience usually needs to do a lot of research if they want to make their characters have a believable psychological trauma.

After reading this book, I hope I’m able to encourage my friend to write a memoir about her painful experience and I believe it will help her to understand the source of her pain. The author wrote her memoir as way to heal herself after her mother died. She also used writing as way to heal herself after her sister committed suicide due to depression.