Creative Writing, Literature, Storytelling and Mental Health Practice

Gillam, Tony

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-74884-9_7

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This thesis also explored the impact of a creative writing group on mental health and wellbeing. Mental health treatments have drawn upon literature in a variety of ways such as expressive writing, therapeutic storytelling, bibliotherapy and poetry therapy (Gillam, 2018;McArdle & Byrt, 2001). Expressive writing involves the use of writing to develop self-expression, creativity, affirmation of identity, and release of distressing preoccupations.…”

Section: Creative Writing Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, receiving training from a professional writer and feedback from a supportive group may enrich processes associated with creative writing such as expressing emotions and finding meaning (King et al, 2013;Nicholls, 2009). To facilitate a safe, supportive environment where participants can feel free to express themselves without fear of judgment, it is also helpful to emphasise that participants are not expected to be highly technically skilled (Gillam, 2018). A study on a poetry workshop for people with mental health conditions found that participants not only reported developing personal meaning and identity, but they also found that communicating through their poetry allowed them to develop connections and awareness of others (Hilse, Griffiths, & Corr, 2007).…”

Section: Creative Writing Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Writing could also help individuals with CMHC, such as schizophrenia, to overcome cognitive impairment by training attention and concentration (King et al, 2013). However, despite the theorising on how creative writing groups could enhance mental health recovery (Gillam, 2018;King et al, 2013), and evidence of the benefits of writing in an individual therapy context (Pennebaker & Evans, 2014), prior to this thesis, there was yet to be an empirical investigation of participating in a creative writing group on the mental wellbeing of people with CMHC.…”

Section: Creative Writing Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, writing can be used in a variety of ways to alter emotional states. Writing can facilitate people to process negative experiences, through emotional expression and gaining new perspectives (Baikie et al, 2012;Gillam, 2018). Life writing about both positive and negative experiences can also allow people to reconstruct their life's story, providing them with hope and meaning for the future.…”

Section: Emotion Regulation In Arts-based Groups: Intrapersonal and Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The following chapter represents a systematic review of the effects of group singing on mental health and wellbeing for adults with mental health conditions. There have been reviews on similar arts-based interventions for people with mental health conditions, for example, music therapy, arts-based programs, and writing-based therapies (Aalbers et al, 2017;Geretsegger et al, 2017;Gillam, 2018;Gold, Solli, Krüger, & Lie, 2009;Stickley et al, 2018;Van Lith et al, 2013).…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Arts-based groups in mental health recovery

Williams¹

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Foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors Genevieve Dingle and Jolanda Jetten for their guidance, support, and encouragement throughout my thesis. Learning from your expertise, insights, and feedback has been a privilege. I am so grateful for how reliable and involved you have always been in these projects. It has been inspiring to see the passion that you have for your research. Thank you for all the opportunities that you have provided me with to learn and develop as a researcher throughout this PhD journey. I would also like to thank all my research collaborators for the contributions they made to this thesis. Thank you, Stephen Clift and Esther Coren, for providing you advice, expertise, and assistance on the systematic literature review. I would also like to thank the research assistants on the School of Hard Knocks project-Renee Calligeros, Leah Sharman, and Belinda Lipscombe. I am also grateful for Stefanie Sprong and Gary Chan for their invaluable statistics advice, and to Braden Trotter and Cameron Hawes for filming the videos. It was a pleasure to work with you all. The School of Hard Knocks research project was supported by Wesley Medical Research Institute [2014-32]. I would like to particularly thank Genevieve Dingle, Jonathan Welch and Christian Rowan for your dedication and advocacy in acquiring this funding. It has been a privilege to be a part of making this research project come into fruition. I am also grateful to the financial contribution that Jolanda Jetten made from her Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. Thank you to all my family and friends for being there for me throughout this journey. To everyone from my office, lab groups, and wider school who I have shared this PhD experience with, thank you for all your support and friendship. To my family and my partner's family, I feel so blessed to have such caring, and supportive family that I can always rely on. To my partner, Marko Dukic, thank you for encouraging me through demanding times, putting things into perspective, and even helping with some data collection. I think we are both uplifted to reach the end of this chapter in life and I look forward to the next adventure with you. Finally, I would like to give my utmost gratitude toward the members of the School of Hard Knocks and Musica. To the School of Hard Knocks coordinators and program facilitators, Jonathan Welch, Susan Gilmartin, Melissa Gill, David Stavanger, and Richard Thayil, thank you for your assistance and support in these studies. It has been an incredible experience to see the amazing work that you do. However, this research would not have been possible without the contribution of the members of the School of Hard Knocks who have so obligingly provided testimonies to their experiences. Thank you for welcoming us into your group. It has been an honour and pleasure to meet you, see your passion, and sing alongside you in the choir.

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Section: Creative Writing Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Creative Writing Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Creative Writing Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emotion Regulation In Arts-based Groups: Intrapersonal and Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Arts-based groups in mental health recovery

Williams¹

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The poetics of vulnerability: creative writing among young adults in treatment for psychosis in light of Ricoeur’s and Kristeva’s philosophy of language and subjectivity

Synnes

Romm

Bondevik

2021

Med Health Care and Philos

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There is a growing interest in the application of creative writing in the treatment of mental illness. Nonpharmacological approaches have shown that access to poetic, creative language can allow for the verbalisation of illness experiences, as well as for self-expressions that can include other facets of the subject outside of the disease. In particular, creative writing in a safe group context has proven to be of particular importance. In this article, we present a pilot on a creative writing group for young adults in treatment for psychosis. We set the texts and experiences from the writing group in dialogue with Paul Ricoeur’s and Julia Kristeva’s philosophies on poetic language as meaning making and part of subject formation. The focus is on language as materiality and potentiality and on the patient’s inherent linguistic resources as founded in a group dynamic. As a whole, the project seeks to give an increased theoretical and empirical understanding of the potentiality of language and creativity for healing experiences, participation and meaning-making processes among vulnerable people. Furthermore, a practice founded in poetic language might critically address both the general and biomedical understanding of the subject and disease.

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Improving Mental Wellbeing of Undergraduate Students During COVID-19 Pandemic

Sari¹,

Saleh²

2021

Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Sustainable Innovation 2020–Social, Humanity, and Education (ICoSIHESS 2020)

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The research investigated the emotions and evaluated the effectiveness of undergraduate students on Expressive Writing during the online learning process in the pandemic of COVID-19. The subjects are 122 undergraduate students divided into experiment and control groups. The quasi-experimental and thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data. The data were collected by conducting pretest, observation, and posttest. Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) was used on pretest and posttest to measure the undergraduate students' mental wellbeing. WEMWBS is a 14-item scale covering subjective wellbeing and psychological functioning. The research reveals three major findings. Firstly, inboth the control and experimental groups, females experienced positive changes in wellbeing scores, while males did not experience positive changes. Secondly, the mean score of mental wellbeing in the control group slightly increases, which is not significant. Thirdly, it also finds no significant difference between pretest and posttest scores in both experiment and control groups. In other words, Expressive Writing could not improve undergraduate students' mental wellbeing. This study's results are valuable for educators, students, and education practitioners to develop mental wellbeing treatment.

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Creative Writing, Literature, Storytelling and Mental Health Practice

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

Arts-based groups in mental health recovery

Arts-based groups in mental health recovery

The poetics of vulnerability: creative writing among young adults in treatment for psychosis in light of Ricoeur’s and Kristeva’s philosophy of language and subjectivity

Improving Mental Wellbeing of Undergraduate Students During COVID-19 Pandemic

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