WellWriting for Health after Trauma and Abuse: A Wonderful Little Book
WellWriting for Health after Trauma and Abuse is subtitled “Five WellWriting Ways to Regain Your Health and Life.” It is written by my friend and colleague, Ellen Taliaferro, MD, an emergency physician who is also the co-author of our soon to be published book, Physicians Guide to Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse.
WellWriting is Ellen’s name for a technique studied and written about by James Pennebaker, a psychologist at the University of Texas. It is a simple concept. An individual, let’s say a woman who has extricated herself from a violent marriage, writes about the traumatic events she has experienced and how those experiences make her feel. She may write only for herself or she may write to share with a trusted health professional. It is not only important for her to get the story and feelings down on paper, but to write and rewrite in order to explore how the impact of the trauma is embedded in her life and impacts her health.
Ellen’s wonderful compact book takes you through the process of WellWriting step-by-step. She calls them the Five WellWriting Ways. They are as follows:
- Way One: WellWriting
- Way Two: Manage Your Anger
- Way Three: Live Well with Stress
- Way Four: Engage in Healing Emotions
- Way Five: Do What You Can with What You Have
After she describes each of the WellWriting Ways, Ellen provides the reader with simple instructions, relevant to that “Way” of starting to WellWrite. For example, in the Chapter called “Way Three: Live Well with Stress,” the reader is asked to “List what physical ailments you had recently that caused you to miss going to work or working on a project that you wanted to finish.” She provides space in the book to begin the journaling. The next assignment in that Chapter is to write about the ailments, describing how many times you experienced them and whether one ailment was more severe than others. She continues to prod the reader to explore the ailments by describing in more detail the one that hurt the most or was most frequent. “How did it feel? Why did your body choose this ailment rather than another to bring you to a state of rest and recovery?” You are asked to write whether you know anyone else who has the same ailments. If so, how does that person cope. If not, where can you go to find coping techniques for these ailments.
WellWriting, we learn, does not have to take a long time—usually 10 or 15 minutes per session. It should not be over composed and you don’t have to worry about grammar or spelling. Instead, you should write quickly without thinking a lot about what you are going to say ahead of time.
Vince Felitti, an internist and one of the lead researchers of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, frequently asks his patients to do what he calls autobiographical writing. He has them email to him a detailed story of their life in 5 year chunks. He believes many of his patients have benefited from this practice and he encourages other physicians to introduce their patients to this therapeutic exercise. Imagine a doctor who not only wants to learn about you and your life, but encourages you to send emails!
Anyone who is recovering from traumatic life experiences, such as violence and abuse, would benefit from reading this book and engaging in the process of WellWriting. Liz Kinsworthy, MC, RN, CS, a Domestic Violence Healthcare and Community Educator in Tucson, Arizona sums it up nicely in her quote on the back cover of the book:
“As a survivor, nurse, and domestic violence educator, I routinely meet women who still struggle with the wounds and ‘shrapnel’ left over from their past abuse. Getting free of the abuser is the first step; reaching for wellness is the second, and sometimes the most important, step. This book empowers the survivor to start that healing process.”