I offer therapeutic writing sessions, both one to one and in groups, from my practice in Bromley, South East London, and online to clients across the UK. After difficult, overwhelming, or traumatic experiences, finding words can feel impossible. You may know that something has affected you without being able to name it. You may feel that talking about it directly is too much, too soon, or too exposing. Therapeutic writing offers a different route into that experience, one that works at your pace, in your own words, without requiring you to speak anything aloud until you’re ready.

You don’t need to be a writer. You don’t need good spelling, grammar, or confidence with words. The focus isn’t on producing polished writing. It’s on what the writing helps you notice, express, connect with, or understand.

What is Therapeutic Writing?

Reclaim Your Voice Through Therapeutic Writing

Every story we hold, whether spoken, unspoken, or not yet formed into words, matters. After difficult, overwhelming, or traumatic experiences, you may feel disconnected from your voice, your body, your memories, or your sense of self. You may know something has affected you, but struggle to find the words for it. You may feel that talking about it directly is too much, too soon, or too exposing.

Therapeutic writing offers another way in.

It uses writing as a gentle, creative and reflective process. It can help you notice what is happening inside, explore feelings at a manageable pace, and begin to make sense of experiences that may feel confusing, fragmented, or hard to speak about. You do not need to be a writer. You do not need good spelling, grammar, confidence, or experience. The focus is not on producing polished writing. The focus is on what the writing helps you discover, express, connect with, or understand.

Types of Therapeutic Writing

Therapeutic writing is the use of words, writing prompts, reflection, and creative exercises to support emotional wellbeing, self-understanding, and healing.

It can include journaling, but it is not only journaling.

• Therapeutic writing may include:
• Memoir
• Life writing
• Journaling
• Free writing
• Letters you do not send
• Lists
• Poetry
• Fiction
• Dialogue
• Writing from different parts of yourself
• Writing about memory, place, image, body, feeling, or experience

Memoir and life writing can be especially helpful when you want to explore the shape of your story. This does not mean writing everything down or creating a full autobiography. It may mean working with one memory, one relationship, one turning point, one place, one version of yourself, or one part of your story that wants attention. Sometimes the writing may focus on something painful. Sometimes it may focus on strength, hope, identity, connection, or what you need now. Therapeutic writing gives you choice. You decide what you write. You decide how much you write. You decide whether you share any of it.

How therapeutic writing differs from journaling

Journaling can be part of therapeutic writing. Many people use journals to record thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, or daily experiences. This can be a helpful and meaningful practice. Therapeutic writing is broader than journaling. It may include journaling, memoir, poetry, letters, fiction, reflective writing, fragments, lists, or structured exercises. It may focus on the present moment, the past, the body, relationships, identity, trauma, grief, hope, or change.

In therapy, therapeutic writing also has a clearer therapeutic purpose. It uses structure, prompts, timing, reflection, and emotional safety. It takes place within a therapeutic relationship, where we can think together about what comes up and how it affects you. Therapeutic writing is not about writing everything down or reliving difficult experiences. It is about using writing carefully, so that it supports you rather than overwhelms you. The process can help you slow down, create distance, find words, notice patterns, and reconnect with parts of yourself that may have felt silenced or shut away.

Who therapeutic writing can help

Therapeutic writing can help people who feel drawn to writing, but it can also help people who feel unsure, stuck, or nervous about words.

It may be useful if you are living with, or recovering from:

• Trauma or distressing experiences
• Dissociation or feeling disconnected from yourself
• Grief or loss
• Anxiety
• Low mood
• Shame or self-criticism
• Illness or changes in the body
• Relationship difficulties
• Discrimination or experiences of being unheard
• Life transitions
• Identity questions
• Creative blocks linked to emotional experience
• A feeling that your story has become fragmented, hidden, or hard to tell

You do not have to write directly about trauma. You might write around it, near it, or away from it. You might use image, metaphor, memoir, fiction, poetry, or everyday detail. You might write about what helps you feel present, grounded, connected, or safe.

The choice of what to write about always stays with you.

Therapeutic writing and trauma

Trauma can affect how we experience memory, language, the body, and our sense of time. Some people feel overwhelmed by memories. Others feel numb, distant, blank, or unable to speak about what happened. Writing can offer a way to approach experience with care. It can help create a bridge between what is felt, what is remembered, and what can be spoken or understood. For some people, writing helps bring order to thoughts and feelings. For others, it helps them reconnect with voice, agency, and choice. We do not force the story. We do not rush the process. We work at a pace that feels possible.

How I use therapeutic writing in one-to-one therapy

In one-to-one therapy, I may offer therapeutic writing when it feels relevant to your needs and safe enough to try. This might involve a short writing prompt during a session. It might involve writing between sessions. It might involve a letter, a poem, a few lines, a list, or a reflective exercise. Sometimes we may use writing to explore a feeling, a memory, a body sensation, an inner conflict, or a part of you that feels hard to reach through talking alone.

We may use memoir or life writing to explore parts of your story. This might mean writing about a particular age, memory, relationship, place, loss, version of yourself, or moment of change. We do not have to create a complete story. Sometimes one small piece of writing can help you understand something important about yourself. You never have to write if you do not want to.

Therapeutic writing is always optional. You can say no. You can stop. You can change direction. You do not have to read anything aloud. You do not have to show me what you have written. Sometimes the most important part of the work happens privately, between you and the page. If you do choose to share your writing, we can explore it together with care. We may notice themes, feelings, images, shifts, questions, or places where something new has emerged.

Therapeutic writing groups

I also offer therapeutic writing groups for people who want to explore writing for wellbeing in a supportive setting. Groups can offer structure, connection, and shared reflection. They can help reduce isolation and create a space where people can write alongside others without pressure to perform. Groups may include journaling, memoir, poetry, reflective writing, letters, and other creative exercises. You may write from lived experience, imagination, memory, or the present moment. The aim is not to produce perfect writing. The aim is to explore, express, connect, and reflect.

A group may include:

• Gentle writing exercises
• Prompts for reflection
• Trauma-sensitive writing activities
• Time for independent writing
• Optional sharing
• Small group or whole group reflection
• Grounding and care around difficult material

You do not need writing experience to join. You do not need to share your writing unless you choose to. The group process can help people feel less alone. It can also support confidence, self-expression, and a stronger sense of voice.

Writing Groups for Specific Contexts

Alongside open therapeutic writing groups, I offer facilitated writing sessions for organisations, charities, community settings, and specialist populations. This includes groups specifically for women navigating perimenopause and menopause, where writing has proven a particularly useful tool for processing identity, grief, and change. I also work with hospices, bereavement settings, and other organisations where a therapeutic writing group might offer something that other forms of support don’t reach.

If you’re interested in bringing therapeutic writing into your organisation or community setting, get in touch to discuss what that might look like.

Why therapeutic writing is optional

Writing can be powerful, but it is not right for everyone all the time. Some people find it freeing. Some people find it exposing. Some people need time before they feel ready. Some people prefer to talk, draw, move, pause, or simply sit with what is present. I will not push you to write, ever. Choice is central to the work. This matters especially when working with trauma, dissociation, shame, or experiences where choice has been taken away. Therapeutic writing should support your sense of agency. It should not become another demand.

My training and research background

I have a particular interest in therapeutic writing at the intersection of trauma, dissociation, and emotional wellbeing, and this is an area of formal training, facilitation experience, and academic research.

My MA dissertation, completed at postgraduate level, explored the use of expressive writing with adults navigating significant life transitions, including women during the menopausal transition. My current Professional Doctorate at the University of Chester continues this research focus, examining how writing can support people who experience dissociation and fragmented self-experience.

I am a member of Lapidus International, the national body for writing and wellbeing, and I bring that community’s values and standards into my facilitation practice.

Specific training in this area includes:

• Therapeutic Writing Workshop
• Therapeutic and Reflective Writing, Professional Writing Academy
• Facilitation and Workshop Development Training, International Wellbeing-through-Writing Institute
• Expressive Writing Intervention: Helping to Facilitate a Client’s Processing of Trauma and Distress
• Poetry Therapy Workshop with Charmaine Pollard
• Facilitating Writing for Wellbeing with Dr Stephanie Dale

 

I don’t treat writing as a fixed technique or a quick solution. I use it as one possible route into reflection, connection, and meaning, and I bring it into clinical work thoughtfully, always led by what the person in front of me actually needs.

 

Is therapeutic writing right for you?

Therapeutic writing may suit you if you are curious about using words as part of therapy, or if talking alone sometimes feels difficult. It may help if you want to explore your inner world, understand your experiences, reconnect with your voice, or find a different way to work with trauma, grief, anxiety, dissociation, shame, or change.

If you’d like to explore therapeutic writing in individual therapy, find out about upcoming groups, or discuss bringing a writing group to your organisation, I’d be glad to hear from you. Get in touch at samanthamerry.co.uk/contacts.

Writing for wellbeing resources

Lapidus – the writing for wellbeing community.

References (Books that might interest)

Bolton, G. 2011. Write Yourself: Creative Writing and Personal Development. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Bolton, V.F. and K.T.G. ed. 2010. Writing Routes: A Resource Handbook of Therapeutic Writing. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Conner, J. 2009. Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within. San Francisco, Calif: Conari Press.

Elzen, K.D. and Lengelle, R. eds. 2023. Writing for Wellbeing: Theory, Research, and Practice. 1st edition. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hunt, C. and Sampson, F. 2005. Writing: Self and Reflexivity. 2005th edition. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York: Palgrave.

Pennebaker, J.W. and Smyth, J.M. 2016. Opening Up by Writing It Down, Third Edition: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain. 3rd edition. New York: Guilford Press.

Pennebaker, J.W. and Evans, J.F. 2014. Expressive Writing: Words That Heal. Enumclaw, WA: Idyll Arbor.

Thompson, K. 2010. Therapeutic Journal Writing: An Introduction for Professionals. Illustrated edition. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.