If you want to write and tell your stories that come from the cancer experience, don't hesitate! Writing through cancer, whether alone or in a group, can be beneficial in many ways. Research studies have indicated a number of healing benefits from writing out of illness, loss or trauma:
Writing helps to make events and your feelings about them more concrete.
Writing can lead to greater self-awareness and insight.
Writing helps you get your emotions out in the open rather than keeping them bottled up inside.
Writing can lead to short-term improvement in autonomic functioning, such as heart rate and respiration.
Writing helps you organize your thoughts and make connections between what you feel and what has happened to you.
Writing together with others can lessen the isolation that sometimes accompanies cancer. How do you start?Begin with where you are.A notebook, a pen, and a quiet place are all you need.Begin with what you are feeling, perhaps with the line, “Today I am…” and go from there.Stuck?Write about diagnosis, hair, the body, friends, friendship or small moments of gratitude.Write about anger, treatment, or fear.Write about life—yours—and its other chapters beside cancer.Trust that what is inside you that needs to be expressed will surface and make its way onto the page.
Should you write alone or with others?Any writing can be healing, but research shows that it is most healing when done in the presence of others.There is an extraordinary supportive community formed through shared story. What matters most is that you write. I encourage you to keep a regular “writing practice” of your own and if you have the opportunity, join a writing group.
What resources are available for you?There are also many resources that can help you write your experience of cancer. In addition to the prompts posted on this website, www.writingthroughcancer.com, my books, When Words Heal, as well as A Healing Journey:Writing Together through Breast Cancer, can be used to inspire your writing, whether alone or with others.
When Words Heal: Writing Through Cancer (Frog Books, 2006)provides a step by step guide for the individual wishing to write or the prospective group leader of a writing group for cancer patients. Endorsed by James W. Pennebaker, PhD, Audrey Shafer, MD, and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, PhD.
A Healing Journey: Writing Together Through Breast Cancer (Amherst Writers & Artists' Press, 2004) documents Sharon's early work with breast cancer survivors, incorporating the women's poems and stories and her observations as group leader on the extraordinary community that emerged out of the writing group. Endorsed by James W. Pennebaker, PhD, David Spiegel, MD, and poet Ellen Bass.
When Words Heal: Writing Through Cancer by Sharon Bray, Ed.D.
Preface written by Martin L. Rossman, M.D., Author of Fighting Cancer from Within and Guided Imagery for Self-Healing. An insightful and useful book for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer, When Words Heal explores the power of words to heal. Sharon provides detailed instructions for those wanting to lead a writing group for individuals living with cancer, or for those who simply wish to write through their experience of cancer. $16.95, Paper, 200pp. ISBN# 1-58394-158-4. Call 800-337-2665 to order or email order to: orders@northatlanticbooks.com . Also available through http://www.randomhouse.com/gm/results.pperl?title_subtitle_auth_isbn=Sharon+Bray&x=16&y=10 or amazon.com.
A Healing Journey: Writing Together Through Breast Cancer by Sharon Bray, Ed.D.
A Healing Journey describes and demonstrates the healing power of writing and sharing our stories aloud through the experience of breast cancer. Building on the research of James W. Pennebaker, David Spiegel and others, the women's stories are interwoven with Sharon's observations as writing group leader. An informative and moving account of the power of writing together to heal and create community, it is a useful and helpful book for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer, for helping professionals and for writing group leaders. ISBN #0-941895-29-7, $14.95, Softcover. Available through http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Journey-Writing-Together-Through/dp/0941895297/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b.
