My story: A therapeutic writing journey.

Abstract

This article uses my personal journey to demonstrate how therapeutic writing can be an adjunct to therapy. I am Chinese, I was born in New Zealand, where I trained as a counsellor and, more recently, as a facilitator of therapeutic writing groups. Therefore, a particular focus of this article is on the possible benefits of therapeutic writing for the Chinese community. Research has shown that Chinese people underutilise mental health services and that cultural issues may be a factor in this. In this article, I suggest that therapeutic writing could benefit this population, predominantly as a support for talking therapy and, in some instances, as an alternative. I conclude by describing some of the parallels between talking therapy and therapeutic writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)