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THURSDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- For years, Harvard researcher Susan Bauer-Wu has worked with people struggling with a dreaded diagnosis -- cancer.
Many turn to support groups, psychotherapy or antidepressant drugs to help them cope with the fears and challenges the illness brings.
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Her team offers them a pen and paper.
Those are the only tools required for a simple, increasingly popular intervention called "expressive writing" or "journal therapy."
The research suggests that by spending 30 minutes each day for four days to write out their innermost thoughts and feelings, patients can significantly boost mental and physical health.
And experts say nearly everyone who tries journal therapy stands to benefit.
"Many people are so surprised at how it really works," said Bauer-Wu, director of the Cantor Center for Nursing and Patient Care Research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. "Even people who were reluctant to do it, who say, 'I'm not a good writer, I can't write well, or I don't like to.' They'll go through the process and have that 'A-ha' moment. They'll tell us -- 'Wow, I never realized this about myself, or about this disease -- it just came out onto the paper.' "
Expressive writing therapy is just that: Patients are encouraged to express whatever is on their mind, letting their hopes and fears flow out in a natural, unrestrained way. It's akin to keeping a journal, but more focused on the things that might be bothering you or triggering stress.
"We tell them, 'Don't worry about the punctuation, the words, just go with the process,' " Bauer-Wu said. "We also encourage them to build on whatever they have written before."
The result, for many patients, is a kind of catharsis -- a release and articulation of issues bottled up inside -- and also a healthy coming to terms with some of those issues.
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