Psychologist, James Pennebaker, has been doing some extremely interesting and relevant work in studying the efficacy of talk therapies and the effectiveness of disclosure and story-making in health. Here is a link to a good introductory article:
http://novateller.com/images/Downloads/Health%20Benefits%20of%20narrative.pdf
I also recommend his book Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions
Hi I took a quick glance at the article, and had some questions. Is it writing about emotional things or is it thinking in a positive way? A sort of reframing. If something is reframed with emotional language is it as we tend to define it culturally emotional?
ReplyDeleteI am not being contrary, but more interested in what it is really saying?
Thank you David. Writing about important personal experiences has been very important to me through my life as an individual, a person of faith, as a mother and grandmother. I also appreciate the book recommendation and plan to put the information to good use.
ReplyDeletePennebaker makes the observation that victims of trauma are more traumatized by the inability to stop thinking about an event than they are by the event itself. the disclosure - the telling - of the experience seems to persist until some sense can be made. Storytelling is a sense making (meaning making) activity. The trauma victim needs to find meaning in the experience by making sense of the story.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with that. Or until the story looses its charge.
DeleteIs that kind of like what we have talked about in finding your voice, too?- Laurina
ReplyDelete