Poetry Therapy

There is wellness found in the intentional application of written and expressed words! As an expressive therapist, I have explored a diversity of tools and creative resources to engage with mental health. When I think of poetry as a therapeutic intervention or for wellness, I associate this as an off-shoot of bibliotherapy - click here to read more about this approach from a post I wrote in 2022!

Poetic language can be found in a diversity of expressed words whether poetry, stories, journaling, fairy tales, myth/legends, songs, religious writing or performance art. The goal of poetry therapy is to help use these tools for self-understanding, creativity/self-expression, interpersonal effectiveness and insight development to address day-to-day circumstances/stressors. But how can you as a reader step into this modality? Here are a few ideas:

• Check your bookshelf. This might mean take a look at your home reading collection and find some writing you enjoyed in the past, read a passage and talk about what you got out of it. Share your favorite book of poetry with friends and family or look at a piece of literature you picked up and haven’t read yet on your bookshelf, start reading and make a post about it on social media!

  
  

• Check your bookstore/library. If your body of home literature doesn’t appeal to you, visit a local bookstore or library and ask a staff person about some writing that inspired them. Often these places have posted recommendations by staff who have read a piece of literature and wanted to share their favorites. Inspiration can be a local business away

  
  

• Check your social media. Perhaps getting out of the house is challenging right now. One idea is to check out social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok and see what someone you admire or respect is reading. What are your favorite online content creators reading?

  
  

• Check your surroundings. In the event your device isn’t available or fully charged, you can simply look out your window, door or check your kitchen table. A magazine or newspaper might have a quote that inspires you. There’s even a chance that a billboard has an inspirational saying or some marketing from a bus has a one-liner that can get your mental health kick-started!

  
  

• Check your imagination. Similar to The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, the Wizard points out to the central characters that they had the tools/resources within them all along to accomplish their goals when they came to him. Perhaps your access to poetry therapy is as simple as opening up your Notepad app or getting out writing supplies. Start writing from an honest, expressive, everyday place. The words in your imagination can be the beginning of something poetic. Not sure how to start exploring your own writing or the world around you - talk to your treater who can give you a few pointers.

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Lou Lim, LMHC, REAT is a licensed mental health counselor and registered expressive arts therapist (REAT) with a master's degree in Expressive Therapy and Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University. He is a member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association and on the committee for REAT credentialing. He has 13 years of experience in counseling and expressive therapy working with children, adolescents, teenagers, adults, and retirees.

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