Poetry and Trauma

Poetry and poetic expression through language, symbol, and story can be valuable in addressing the range and depth of traumatic experiences. The therapeutic benefits of poetry, story, and creative writing have been well documented in the professional literature. Poetry therapy is the use of language, symbol, and story in therapeutic, educational, and community-building capacities. The purview of poetry therapy includes bibliotherapy, narrative therapy, and journal therapy. The field of poetry therapy is interdisciplinary, drawing from the arts, psychology, medicine, social work, education, and counseling, and others. The underlying assumption of this entry is that the convergence of literary and therapeutic perspectives can be helpful in increasing our ability to access cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains of human experience, particularly as they relate to trauma. In ...