Bibliotherapy Research Articles

Therapeutic writing in Palliative Care: a systematic review – A death free of tubes with narrative communication skills

ABSTRACT This review aims to improve the full scope of “therapeutic encounters” in palliative care, promoting the well-being and quality of life of patients through narrative therapy and therapeutic writing as a communication tool. Palliative care seeks to alleviate the suffering of terminally ill patients and their families. Narrative interventions help patients and families to construct the experience of disease through the re-signification of symptoms. The PRISMA guided this systematic review. A total of 349 articles were analyzed, and 42 showed insightful results. The results demonstrate the relevance of narrative therapy and the use of therapeutic writing as a way to promote the well-being and quality of life of patients in palliative care, health professionals, and the general population. The focus on reflection, the meaning of the experience, and emotional expression translated into the reduction of anxiety and depression. It highlights the need to reflect and develop psychological research on palliative intervention and the identification of the expressive and communicational value of narrative therapy poetry therapy (poetry), journaling and music in palliative care.

ChatGPT, the voice from elsewhere: a poetic and therapeutic dialog between human and artificial intelligence

ABSTRACT With the recent advancements of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the dialog between humans and AI is no longer merely functional but can be a profound means of reflection and psychological growth, especially when artistic approaches, such as poetry, are included. AI has the potential to generate poetic responses that deeply resonate with human experience, facilitating the expression of emotions, promoting psychological well-being, and encouraging personal reflection. This article describes a poetic exchange over a seven-day period between the author and ChatGPT, personified as the “Voice from Elsewhere,” that explores an existential crisis. After each exchange, the results were analyzed from a Jungian perspective to highlight connections to symbols and archetypes that could be used in Poetry Therapy or other therapeutic environments. The results indicate that ChatGPT has the capacity to create poems related to existential questions which could open the way for new and enriching dialogs, capable of potentially supporting psychotherapeutic work. Poetry, whether human or machine generated, will remain an artistic means to explore and experience inner transformation.

Teaching self-love through poetry and creative writing exercise: a case study

ABSTRACT The present research aims to explore how a poetry therapy-based session plan on self-love impacts students' relationships with themselves. A session plan, developed using the RES poetry therapy model, was taught to 32 adolescent students from Banasthali Vidyapith School. Following the session, the written pieces produced by the students were subjected to thematic analysis using Braun and Clarke's [Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101] framework. The analysis sought to capture students' reflections on their relationship with themselves, focusing on self-love. Three key trends emerged which encompassed a progression: first, the transformation from feelings of guilt for self-mistreatment to the commitment to self-care; second, a shift from mere assertions of loving themselves to an awareness of the conditional nature of their love; and third, a transition from inhibition towards the concept of loving the self to acknowledging the importance of self-love.

From darkness to light, from subject erasure to validation: personal writing by childhood victims of sexual abuse and sharing in therapeutic writing communities

ABSTRACT The article reviews the current theoretical research on writing in the aftermath of childhood sexual trauma and the role of writing and of sharing in therapeutic online writing communities. This paper presents a qualitative narrative study that included analysis of 54 texts written and shared on the internet. The paper suggests that personal writing by childhood victims of sexual abuse and online sharing of their texts facilitate testimony and rehabilitation of the abused and erased self. In the discussion of the research findings, I focus on the role of writing in revealing the truth, and the possibility of existing in a dialectics of trauma. The paper demonstrates this through the salient theme of silence and speech. The theoretical contribution of the study to the fields of bibliotherapy and poetry therapy is in understanding the role and meanings of writing and of sharing in therapeutic writing communities.

Writing connections as a source of significance: group poetry therapy among patients with advanced cancer

ABSTRACT The need for psychosocial support in cancer treatment, especially in the palliative care phase, has been identified in a nationwide population-based study, published in BMC palliative care (Wang et al., 2016). This study discusses the use of group poetry therapy among patients with advanced cancer to address their psychosocial and emotional needs. A group of seven patients with advanced cancer used poetry therapeutic methods to examine the emotions provoked by a serious illness. The integrative poetry therapy method employed in this research aimed to reduce emotional loneliness, strengthen patient-experienced connectedness to self, others, and nature, and make these connections visible through writing and narration. This qualitative analysis examines the themes raised in the patients’ texts from a connectivity-building viewpoint. Nature-themed metaphor and mindfulness work helped patients verbalize connectedness with others, nature, themselves, and their own individual resources and vulnerabilities. The group dealt with both constructive and destructive emotions. Emotions that strengthened and maintained connections included love, hope, and gratitude. These emotions were perceived as supportive and cherishable. Emotional writing provided a controlled and safe means to connect with destructive emotions, such as existential loneliness and abandonment.

The hundreds: my pace of walking provokes my thinking

ABSTRACT This arts-based research showcases how the art of writing poetry can be a tool for minorities to navigate everyday precariousness, invisible marginalization, and status silencing. Situated within the practice of poetry therapy, I use a walking poem, as a unique form of performance autoethnography, to produce my inner speech as situated knowledge across various places. In my thinking of subjectivity and lived experience, this walking poem captures the tangible frustration of human existence across various times. Writing and rewriting a hundred lines of thought gives me aesthetic pleasure, enabling me to express the affective, ethical, and performative dimensions of being, doing, feeling, and knowing as an outsider within this academic space. In the process of poetry-making, I engage the sociological imagination, turning private thought into public issues. This is how the poetic is theoretical and philosophical, born out of a necessity, to articulate the everyday practice of being and living on the margins.

The Effectiveness of Therapeutic Storytelling in Reducing the Symptoms of Body Dysmorphic Disorder Among Female Adolescents

The Effectiveness of Therapeutic Storytelling in Reducing the Symptoms of Body Dysmorphic Disorder Among Female Adolescents

The Lawlessness of Loss: Poetry and Autoethnographic Writing as Therapy in Grief and Loss.

This study seeks to locate and evaluate 'poetry therapy' as a form of therapeutic method for use by practitioners of humanistic psychotherapy especially when used in responding to the traumas associated with grief and loss. Following an initial survey of the literature, the study will explore some examples of the use of poetry therapy for grief, with an especial qualitative focus upon the insights to be gained from first-hand autoethnographic accounts. The study undertakes a literature review which also includes some consideration of peer-reviewed autoethnographic explorations authored by theorists and practitioners of psychotherapy in order to identify what additional insights, if any, may be gained from accessing these personal accounts of process. In particular, the humanist perspective upon grief should be tempered with pragmatism so as to avoid regarding poetry as a reductive sentimentalising of trauma: encountering loss may be seen as experiencing subjection to a 'lawless' world. The study confirms the use of poetry therapy and autoethnographic writing has significant utility and potential, whilst recognising the challenges for empirical confirmation, the need for practitioners to be sensitive to the nuances of the source materials and the subtlety of appropriate application for different client perspectives and groups.

The present situation, issues and improved schemes of localizing poetry therapy in China

Poetry therapy is a psychological intervention that uses poetic language as the core of treatment and has developed into a more mature psychotherapeutic system in Western countries. With a wave of research, the localization of poetry therapy in China has achieved some success in terms of macro-theory, meso-practice and micro-empirical evidence. However, the existing researches still exhibit following issues which mainly refer to the inadequate deep integration and comparison researches. These two issues are respectively caused by the incomplete mechanism of Western poetry therapy and researchers’ insufficient attention on the adaptation of therapeutic content in the process of localization. Consequently, a double-loop model of the mechanism of poetry therapy based on the transformation of metaphorical meaning could help to alleviate the issue of inadequate integrated research. Meanwhile, a followed therapeutic content adjustment which based on treatment culture comparison could benefit to alleviate the issue of inadequate comparative research. These improved schemes could contribute to advancing the localization of poetry therapy in China and provide a reference for how contemporary psychotherapy research can utilize the traditional culture.

A Theoretical Review of Poetry Therapy since the Year 2000

A Theoretical Review of Poetry Therapy since the Year 2000

“Double mirror” reflections technique: a case study in creative interactive poetry therapy (CIPT)

ABSTRACT The aim of the article is to offer a therapeutical technique as part of the Creative Interactive Poetry Therapy (CIPT) expressive writing process. A teen Client analyzes self-authored poems according to two points of view: (1) Looking “objectively” at each poem (detached third person perspective) directly through the words reflecting on the “surface of the mirror” and (2) Looking “subjectively” (deeply involved perspective) on what is hidden behind the words, as the “mirror” reflects the inner depth of the writer. At the end of the process of writing poems and reflections, the adolescent Client discusses the benefits and drawbacks of this approach and how all of this influenced him during the therapy. Any therapist may use this “Double Mirror” add-on technique to deepen the understanding of the potential in written spontaneous poetry and of the Client writer - all as part of the phenomenon of writing poetry for well-being.

Can We Benefit From Poetry Therapy Practice Model in Musical Appreciation Education of Pre-School Pre-Service Teachers? A Program Proposal

Bu araştırma şiir terapi uygulama modelinden yararlanılarak okul öncesi öğretmen aday-larının müziksel beğeni eğitimine yönelik örnek bir eğitim-öğretim programı sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu doğrultuda araştırma kapsamında Türk müziğinin seçkin besteci ve söz yazarlarından Nadir Göktürk ve eserlerinin tanıtımına yönelik hazırlanmış 6 oturum süreli program önerisi ayrıntılı olarak paylaşılmıştır.

Dadaism in poetry therapy: The heart of words and the freedom of nonsense

The effectiveness of poetry in promoting emotional healing and self-discovery has become exemplified by the burgeoning field of poetry therapy. This article seeks to synthesize existing research in poetry therapy with effective therapeutic techniques by delving into the potential of Dadaism as a framework for poetry therapy. Because Dadaism emerged as a literary and artistic movement that arose from the state of mental tension, chaos and trauma, I argue that through a comprehensive examination of the historical and artistic contexts of the movement, as well as its key themes and techniques, therapists can facilitate exploration of sensitive and taboo subjects in a non-threatening and safe manner. By employing the techniques present in Dadaist poetry, this article illustrates how the movement can aid in the expression and processing of intense emotions, challenge the validity of prevailing narratives, and engender novel perspectives. Ultimately, this article asserts that Dadaism offers a valuable lens for more exploration of its use in poetry therapy to further advance this nascent field.

Writing Poetry: A Coping Mechanism for the Mental Health of High School Students

With the recent pandemic of Covid-19 sweeping through the United States, it has been proven that its impact has negatively affected individuals’ mental health. Recent research has shown that adolescents, specifically high school students, are particularly mentally impacted by social isolation experienced due to remote learning, fear of contracting the virus, and other factors. As a teenager, I too noticed a negative decline in my mental health and naturally fell into writing poetry as a way to cope with everything I was experiencing during remote learning. This newfound coping mechanism piqued my interest and I began to wonder if other high school students would also benefit from writing poetry. This thus led to my research question which is “What is the impact of writing poetry when used by high school students as a coping mechanism in support of mental health?” Poetry therapy is used as treatment for different reasons by psychologists as it provides neuroscientific perspectives, flexible treatments, and many more beneficial aspects. The methodology that I determined best fit my research was an experimental pre-post study. In this study, participants wrote a minimum five-line poem per day over a three-week period in addition to completing four surveys: a mental health questionnaire, two poetry perception surveys, and a daily survey. In terms of future research, medical professionals who have experience with poetry therapy can refine this coping mechanism of writing poetry to then recommend it to patients to engage with in their own time outside of counseling sessions.

Efek Biblioterapi Dalam Menurunkan Kecemasan Pada Anak Usia Sekolah (7 – 12 tahun) Saat Perawatan Di Rumah Sakit

Background: The child has difficulty in understanding why they are sick, hospitalization can cause separation anxiety in children, which includes protest, despair, discharge, loss of control so it needs bibliotherapy. Bibliotherapy is the use of the book as a medium of therapy to minimize stressors, prevent the loss, reduce anxiety, and support children coping. Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect Biblio therapy against anxiety levels in school-age children (7-12 years) in the Children's Room of Blambangan Banyuwangi Hospital. Methods: Pre-experimental research design using the technique of one group pre-post test design. A sample of 20 children with accidental sampling technique. Data obtained from observations before and after giving bibliotherapy, and then do the scoring, tabulating, and statistical tests using Wilcoxon match pair test. Results: Manually obtained calculation number 199> 52 = Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted, meaning that there are differences in anxiety levels before and after biblio therapy which means there is a significant effect of bibliotherapy on anxiety levels in school-aged children (7–12 years) in the Children's Room of Blambangan Hospital Banyuwangi. Conclusions: Billion therapy can be applied as one of the nursing interventions in the hospital to decrease the problem of children to keep children happy and cooperative during hospitalization.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Positive-thinking-based Poetry Therapy on Infertility Stress and Psychological Well-being in Infertile Women

Background: Infertility is a global problem that leads to psychological complications. Studies show that the psychological damage caused by infertility is far greater in women compared to men. Infertility reduces psychological well-being and causes infertility stress in infertile women. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of positive-thinking-based poetry therapy on infertility stress and psychological well-being in infertile women. Methods: This quasi-experimental research was conducted with a pre-test, post-test design and a control group. The statistical population included all infertile women. The sample size consisted of 46 women who were selected via the convenience sampling method. They were randomly assigned to experimental (n=23) and control groups (n=23). The experimental group received the package of positive-thinking-based poetry therapy which was compiled by the researchers, for eight 90-min sessions. The data was collected using the infertility stress questionnaire and the psychological well-being scale. The data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance via the SPSS software, version 22. Results: The multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance results showed that positive-thinking-based poetry therapy has a positive and significant effect on improving infertility stress psychological and well-being in infertile women (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results, the change in mental attitude and emergence of positive emotions caused by the intervention of positive-thinking-based poetry therapy improved the infertility stress and psychological well-being of infertile women.

We Fall In Love With People We Can’t Have: Patah Hati dalam teks Syair Surat Kirim Kepada Perempuan

Frederick Clark Prescott (1922) in his book entitled The Poetic Mind states that the values contained in poetry have good therapeutic elements for troubled souls. Poetry as a literary work is believed to have elements of healing for troubled souls. One of the healing methods is by using the medium of poetry, which is known as Psychopoetry or poetry therapy. This study aims to reveal the concept of love without end or the popular concept of we fall in love with people we can't have which is contained in the text of the Syair Surat Kirim Kepada Perempuan, which is analyzed using poetry therapy studies. There are two methods used in this study, namely the philological method and the qualitative descriptive method. The philological method needs to be carried out considering that the object of this research is classical Malay literary texts. After interpreting the object, data collection uses a qualitative descriptive method. After the data has been collected, an analysis of the data is carried out using descriptive analytic methods. The result of this study is that the elements of writing poetry as a therapy for healing a wounded soul are found in the SSKKP text. Apart from that, the SSKKP text also fulfills the crucial elements of using poetry therapy to heal wounded souls.

Comparing The Therapeutic Effect of Social Media-Based Art, Music and Poetry Therapies Intervention on treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms of Flood Victims

This study ascertained the effectiveness of social media-based art, music and poetry therapy intervention in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms of flood victims. A quasi-experiment involving 330 flood victims randomly assigned to a control and treatment group was carried out. Furthermore, the treatment group was divided into three to form the social media-based art, music, and poetry therapies group, respectively. The therapy was delivered through a WhatsApp group. The study revealed that social media-based therapies were effective in reducing the PTSD symptoms of participants in the experiment group, as compared with the control group. Social media-based poetry therapy was found to be more effective than art and music therapies in treating PTSD. This finding directs relevant authorities and medical experts as to the best kind of social media-based therapy to employ when restoring the minds of people who have been through tragic experiences such as flooding. To offer their therapies, particularly to dispersed flood victims, hospitals and other healthcare facilities that are prepared to offer psychotherapy services to patients may want to consider using social media.

The impact of expressive storytelling on grieving: how narrative writing can help us actively and effectively process and reconcile the loss of a loved one

ABSTRACT After my father's death, writing became a tool to alleviate my suffering. Using evocative autoethnography, I examined if written, first-person storytelling that leaned on expressive writing techniques could help me actively process and effectively move through my complicated mourning. My data consisted of 41 stories (published as The Revelations of Eapen) that disclosed the cultural interactions of bereavement while narrating the wildness of prolonged grief. Removing myself as the protagonist, I looked at the writing through a scientific lens. I discovered the writing was constructed using two central themes, targeting bereavement: the art of storytelling and the four cornerstones of grief stories. This article explores my analysis, providing a framework for therapeutic storytelling that can be used to reconcile grief.

Sing along with Milarepa: songs of liberation from lust and craving

ABSTRACT Poetry therapy is a promising method for healing psychiatric disorders and gaining fresh perspectives on life. Spiritual poetry, in particular, supports psychology and therapeutic uses. This study argues that as an effective therapy, Milarepa’s songs can treat lust and ignorance and improve our physical and mental health, understanding, and viewpoint on life and other related problems. The first section of the study will discuss how lust can cause health problems and other diseases by affecting the body and mind. In the second section, Milarepa’s songs on ignorance, enlightenment, and lust will demonstrate how they can relieve lust and psychic disorder while improving morals and understanding. The article also shows how Milarepa’s songs inspired the author to write poetry about desire and broaden his life perspective. The author uses a wide range of literature to substantiate his arguments.