WRITING FOR HEALTH & WELL-BEING
DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE

Writing for Health and Wellbeing, Distance Learning Course, Laurel Alexander

Benefits of Home Study What to Write About Writing with Laurel Costs How to Enrol

Considerable research shows that expressive writing reduces stress and strengthens the immune system, both important factors in maintaining wellness. In addition to freeing emotions, when people write their deepest thoughts and feelings about stressful events their heart rates slow, their bodies are better able to fight infection, they experience a general sense of well-being and make fewer doctor visits.

Studies conducted at Southern Methodist University, Ohio State University, University of Texas at Austin, and North Dakota State University US show that the practice of writing provides both a sense of well-being and health benefits that include:

• Pain reduction
• Immune function improvement, including raised T cell counts
• Resistance to minor illnesses such as colds and flu
• Relief of physical stress shown by lowered blood pressure and heart rate
• New perspectives
• Extended self-awareness
• Enhanced self-esteem
• Release of trapped feelings and blocked emotions
• Enhanced emotional balance
• Reduced stress levels

Current research demonstrates that journal writing can improve your health, coping skills, immune system functioning, cognitive abilities and emotional adaptations to stressful events. Journaling also fosters a deeper, intuitive connection to the emotional and spiritual dimensions of personal growth.

BENEFITS OF HOME STUDY FOR THE WRITING FOR HEALTH & WELL-BEING DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE

• You can enroll on the course when you like.
• Tutor support is by post, phone and email.
• You can complete your study as quickly as you like or you can take up to one year.
• Access your Writing for Health & Well-Being course 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week.
• There are no travel costs because you study at home.
  

WHAT CAN I WRITE ABOUT?

This distance learning course uses journaling as a tool for developing greater self-awareness, managing stress, and clarifying changes you want and need to make. Whether writing about life transitions e.g. menopause, living with chronic illness, pregnancy, coming to terms with terminal illness, stress, weight management or grief issues, journaling offers a bridge to improved health and well-being.

Some other ideas for inclusion in your journal:

Writing for caregivers

Research shows that caring for a loved one on a regular basis produces stress, illness, and a higher frequency of death. Depression and anxiety result when caregivers sacrifice their own health by caring for the health of others. Whether you care for a spouse, parent, sibling, friend, or other relative; whether that person lives with you or you visit regularly - your focus on caring for another takes a toll on your emotional and physical well-being.

Writing for personal caregivers offers an opportunity to bring up to consciousness and let out those feelings that you keep inside. In addition to helping you free up your emotions, writing may have medical benefits for you, too. Studies show that when some people write their deep thoughts and feelings about stressful events, such as taking care of another person, their heart rates slow, their bodies are better able to fight infection, and people feel a general sense of well-being.

Writing through cancer

Since you first found out you had cancer, many thoughts may have spun through your mind. Right now you might be feeling:

• Angry that your body has betrayed you,
• Afraid of your illness and of what may happen next,
• Sad over the loss of your physical health,
• Out of control and helpless, as if you are at the mercy of cancer,
• Alone because others don’t fully understand what you’re going through,
• Confused as you decide what to do next.

Whether you are newly diagnosed, currently in treatment, or have been in remission for years, writing about the different aspects of your cancer can be therapeutic. Men and women with cancer turn to writing for many reasons. Here are just a few:

• to organize your thoughts
• to express your emotions
• to identify what is important and what has changed
• to speak in your own voice when doctors are telling you what to do
• to claim yourself as a unique human being and not just a statistic
• to identify loose ends and unfinished business
• to come to terms with this major event in your life

In addition to helping you free up your emotions, writing about cancer can have medical benefits for you, too. Studies show that when people write their deep thoughts and feelings about traumatic events, their heart rates slow, their body is better able to fight infection, and people feel a general sense of well-being.

Writing is an effective way to handle these and other emotions that living with cancer has triggered. Often people facing a serious illness find it difficult to express their feelings to others. Some aren’t used to revealing their emotions. Others feel a need to be strong for the sake of the people around them. For whatever reason we do it, when we keep our emotions bottled up, we increase our stress and the impact it has on our bodies. Writing empowers us to express our difficult feelings is a safe and private way. It allows you to come to terms with cancer at your own pace and in your own way. Your journal is always there to receive your thoughts and feelings.

In addition to giving you a chance to express yourself and reduce stress, regular writing provides a way to make sense of life events, find meaning in them and learn the lessons they have to teach. Because writing helps us to focus inward, it fosters coming to terms with illness and regaining a sense of control. Writing also helps people to clarify their thoughts and make good choices.

Marlene A. Schiwy, in her book A Voice of Her Own, talks about the healing dimensions of journal writing: "To create wholeness in our lives is to heal ourselves. Healing comes from the same root as whole and holiness. It is the attainment of wholeness of body, mind, emotions and spirit. For many women, the journal provides a gentle setting in which healing can take place. It offers one place where literally and symbolically, all of the pieces of one’s life finally come together."

As you work through the initial shock of your diagnosis and the uncomfortable feelings that and treatment can provoke, writing can aid you to get in touch with your basic values, to rediscover the positive qualities and strengths you had forgotten as well as to uncover new ones. Journal writing enables you to put illness in perspective. By writing, you will realize that your illness is only a part of you, not the whole person.

Living with cancer is an intense experience. If as you write, you feel overwhelmed by your feelings or stuck in a downward spiral, try changing the subject to one that evokes good feelings for you or take a break and set your journal aside. You can always pick it up later. Should the out-of control-feelings persist, schedule an appointment with a helping professional to explore other methods of coping.

Writing helps chronic conditions

Researchers like James W. Pennebaker, M.D., professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Joshua M. Smyth, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at North Dakota State University, are proving what journal writers have always known, journaling is good not only for the soul, but for the body as well. The first studies, in the late l980’s, examined healthy people and journaling. Researchers have found that people who write about their deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding upsetting events have stronger immunity and visit their doctors half as often as those who write only about trivial events. And more recently, exciting and innovative research appeared in the April l4th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research, conducted by Joshua M. Smyth at the State University of New York at Stoneybrook, showed that writing about a stressful experience reduces physical symptoms in patients with chronic illnesses. The team monitored 112 patients with arthritis or asthma. The subjects were asked to write in a journal for 20 minutes three days in a row about either an emotionally stressful incident or their plans for the day. Of the group who expressed their anxiety on paper, 50% showed a large improvement in their disease after four months. Only 25% of patients who wrote on neutral topics showed any relief of symptoms.

WRITING WITH LAUREL

With several years experience in reflective writing behind her, Laurel can facilitate your growth through partnered writing practice. Learning different ways to write adds colour, perspective and dimension to your reflective writing. With the help of Laurel, you can use your writing to gently but powerfully explore the various aspects of yourself, your life and your healing processes.

Journal writing has the lowest risk factor imaginable, mentally as well as financially, providing you with the gentlest and safest of therapies. No expertise required, no minimum time required, and you don’t lose the benefits if you miss a time period.

University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker believes that regular journaling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. He theorizes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health.

This course is for new or experienced journal writers and includes various journaling methods and mind-body medicine practices plus relaxation, writing and visualization exercises.

All too often, when I suggest that a person keep a therapeutic journal, the first thing they say is, "No way! I'd never write my deepest darkest thoughts down in a notebook. What if my husband (or wife, or kids, or whoever) finds it.” Or they might say “I can’t write!” So is there a risk in writing down your private thoughts in a journal? If you don't trust your family, then yes. But if you can set a reasonable boundary with your family and get over your childhood fears of being exposed, the benefits of journaling are plentiful.

Lucia Cappaccione, author of The Well Being Journal, recognizes that illness can be a great teacher from within. "The most important message I learned from my disease is that the healing process is activated by a spiritual force that resides within. A journal can be a ‘living textbook’ for learning the lessons that the illness has to teach."

Therapeutic journaling is a process. It is not an English class assignment. It's not an essay, or an article. Nor is it your last will and testament or your autobiography, to be found later by your great grandchildren in a dusty wooden chest in the attic. Therapeutic journaling is spontaneous, expressive, in the here and now.

While is can be used beneficially to create a sense of order and organization to your thoughts, plans, goals, and feelings, it is equally useful to do away with all linear thought, and just write your stream of consciousness - whatever comes into your mind. Never mind about punctuations or neatness. Your journal is your friend. It won't judge you. Therapeutic journaling is a powerful way to develop a relationship with yourself.

Throughout the course, you have the guidance of Laurel (published author and practicing therapist) who will offer practical support and advice.

The creative process is a powerful, transformative tool for healing our minds and bodies, our relationships and our world. Each one of us carries this ancient medicine inside. Kay Marie Porterfield, M.A

COSTS FOR THE WRITING FOR HEALTH & WELL-BEING DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE

The fee of £199 and includes personal guidance with an experienced tutor who is a published writer and working therapist specializing in supporting those with cancer.

Although I write as part of my job, it’s been a long time (since school days) since I had done any creative writing. Laurel chose relevant areas to discuss and write about. The funny thing was, once I’d started writing it became a really easy way to express my emotions, which I was quite surprised about – the words literally flowed out! Actually putting pen to paper was a useful way to organise my thoughts about my cancer and the effect it had on me and those people close to me. It was a valuable way to reflect, as I can look back at any time on the things I wrote about, and see how I have changed since then. Laurel’s calm and compassionate nature was extremely helpful, especially when dealing with difficult and strong emotions, and her encouragement was much valued. I would highly recommend Laurel’s writing course to anyone to use as part of their healing process. Helen. Breast cancer survivor.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU WANT TO ENROL ON
THE WRITING FOR HEALTH & WELL-BEING DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE

If you would like to apply for the Writing for Health & Well-Being Distance Learning Course, please complete the enrolment form and send together with your remittance for £199 (made payable to Laurel Alexander) to the address on the enrolment form.

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