Writing is our cultural medium and can be used to enhance counselling and psychotherapy - just writing in itself can be therapeutic. The onset of online therapy means that increasing numbers of therapists need to know about this valuable means of communication. Writing Cures demonstrates power of expressive and reflective writing in the context of therapy, whether online or text-based, enabling the practitioner to undertake writing methods with clients. It introduces the reader to therapeutic writing in a range of settings and contexts, and from a range of approaches. Chapters from an impressive list of contributors • 'Ethical and Practical Dimensions of Online Writing Cures' by Stephen Goss and Kate Anthony • 'Writing by Patients and Therapists in Cognitive and Analytic Therapy' by Anthony Ryle • 'Reflective and Therapeutic Writing in Counsellor Training' by Colin Feltham and Jacquie Daniels. Illustrated throughout from clinical experience Writing Cures will be of benefit to all counsellors and psychotherapists.
Dr Gillie Bolton is an international authority on writing and author of a long publication list including nine books (one in 4th Edition), academic papers (many in top-ranking journals), as well as professional articles, poetry, and for a lay readership.
Early years in an Epping Forest village near London, in a seventeenth-century farmhouse and 2 years in Singapore, were augmented by school in Southwold, Suffolk. Social Anthropology (MA Cantab) at Cambridge University was a firm foundation on which to build work with people. Her PhD, from the University of East Anglia Medical School, is based on some of her many academic publications. Retired, she now lives in Central London and Derbyshire’s Hope Valley with her emeritus professor husband.
This edited collection of chapters that span the science and practice of the use of writing in counselling is a must read for anyone in the mental health professions who is serious about using therapeutic writing as an intervention modality. The editors have been careful to select a wide range of topics and to address the ethics of the use of the practice of writing in therapy. I highly recommend Writing Cures as a point of departure for anyone with a serious interest and a professional respect for the power of writing.
Definite help with learning about writing therapy. It helped me realize that writing can be very helpful in psychotherapy. I learned that it can be used alone or with therapy as an extra tool.