Writing as Therapy

by Gregory Allen Butler

Guest Article by Maggie Butler

Writing as therapy is a topic as close to my heart as it is possible to get unless you are the Love Doctor Himself -- or a heart surgeon. Believe me, I shudder as I write the word surgeon. Am I superstitious? You bet. Do words have power? Does the moon wax and wane?

Many moons ago now my friend and colleague, a skilled Ph.D. psychologist, suggested that I do writing as therapy to help me a) to know myself and b) to understand my son. We were perhaps, he said, caught in a web too complex for me to move out of as fast as I might like. I'm the impatient type, I suppose. How tactful he was in the way he approached me. That was my introduction to writing as therapy.

For this reason, Leo's skillful approach, I listened to his suggestion. As a child I enjoyed writing in the red leather diary given to me by mamma as a Christmas present-- until I caught her reading it that is. And quit that activity that day.

I began my project by purchasing a large school type notebook in my favorite shade of pink and a ream of lined three-holed notebook paper. Having no access to a computer at that time and remembering how much easier it could be to either hide my writing notebook or carry it with me when I went out, I began. I felt like a kid again. Writing as therapy. Hmmm…

What did I have to say to myself now that I was not a child but was struggling to understand and to support with loving parenting my child (teen) son? Without digging that 18 year-old notebook out from under the pile in my study this is what I remember-I wrote lists of things to do to keep my mind occupied. Otherwise, I worried about my son. But he was receiving all of the help his father in North Carolina and my son and I in Maryland knew how to enlist and my job as his mother shifted from crisis management of his health to recovery of my own.

At the time of list making I knew that I needed help, Leo was a helpful friend and colleague, thus I would write every day if it would help me to feel better. My son was depending upon me. I had to help myself.

Once I dived into my project I felt inspired by it and began to want another cover for the notebook. No books about journaling had yet drawn my attention or were advising my on the topic of writing as therapy. No, I was stumbling blindfolded and backwards, feeling my way along this path and I needed an image for the cover of my notebook. It loomed in all of its pinkness as too pale for my purposes. My passion was aroused.

I chose a picture of a lighthouse big enough to live in one friend who saw it stated. The boiling red sky behind the house faded into a lighter pink at the horizon as the sun burst upon the scene. One window of the lighthouse showed a tiny bit of the light peeping through-- otherwise the house sat dark upon the ground. The light seemed to be on in one room and this image gave me encouragement. Perhaps if I sat in my room and wrote before my husband or son woke up I would be the light I craved to see in my house (home). My soul's longing for guidance and health for us all were acute.

Another friend, Alfio, suggested that I might like an outing. We went to a bookstore he liked in Silver Spring, Maryland, a warren of rooms stacked to the ceilings with used books, magazines, and papers. I never knew there were books to guide you as you journaled. What was there to say about writing? Didn't one just sit with a favorite pen and a pad of paper and fill the page with whatever flowed out? Discovering the books describing this process carried me further along in my adventure. No longer was I just making to do lists for by then, I'd added dreams and daily pages as I developed my own methods for writing as therapy.

But at the bookstore I discovered a writer who had created a structure beyond my humble beginnings --Ira Progoff. He had developed a systematic method of journaling described in his book, At A Journal Workshop. It has since disappeared from my bookshelf due to my habit of sharing my books once I squeeze the juice from them. However, I have the names of the sections he described in his book because I have now dug my lighthouse notebook out from under the pile where it lay. I see from those curling pink notebook tabs where I wrote these names from Progoff's book:

Period Log
Twilight Image
Daily Log
Dream Log
Stepping Stones
Dialogue

Tucked into an envelope is a brochure I'd forgotten about describing -- The Dialogue House Workshops. The focus of our work is inward. Progoff describes the atmosphere in which we work: “The primary atmosphere of human beings...it is within them psychologically. It is to be found in ...their underlying feelings regarding themselves and their fellow persons....their potentialities and the resources upon which they can draw.”

Dr. Progoff trained with Dr. C. G. Jung during his early years as a psychotherapist. He found that those clients of his who wrote in some type of journal were able to "work through issues more rapidly." Through his research, Progoff developed and refined the Journal Method. Before he died he authored 14 books on a variety of other subjects including meditation, C. G. Jung's theories, and mysticism. Is it any wonder that I connected with this author?

Before I close this commentary on writing as therapy, I will say that I have used this method as a daily practice for almost all of the 18 years I have enjoyed what began as list making. I've even written a fiction book now that is a direct outgrowth of this practice. Here is what a well-known diarist, Anais Nin, author of the famous Diaries has to say:

"When people ask me how to keep a diary, I refer them to Ira Progoff's Intensive Journal Program…One cannot help being amazed by what emerges from this skillful inner journey. All the elements we attribute to the poet, the artist, become available to everyone, to all levels of society, even those who have learned English as a second language."

My wife Maggie agreed to write this article for Holistic Personal Development, and time permitting, she'll write again for the site in the near future. She recently completed her first book, All Shook Up (still looking for a publisher) and is a mental health counselor with 25 years experience.