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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 She added that the therapy does work better for some patients than for others. Preadolescent children, especially, will probably not benefit. "We think that they may not have the cognitive or emotional skills [at that age] to work through things on their own," Fivush said.
According to Bauer-Wu, patients who are solitary and private by nature may benefit the most.
"There's a lot of hype about support groups, but we know that some people just aren't 'talkers,' " the Boston researcher said. "To me, expressive writing is a wonderful alternative for these people. It gives them a way to express their feelings and process what's going on in their minds."
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It's important to note that patients who engage in journal therapy don't write with any intended audience in mind. In most cases, according to experts, they don't even have to read back their own journal entries to benefit. "It's the act of writing that seems to be important," Fivush said.
And, as treatments go, expressive-writing therapy is cheap. "Obviously, there's nothing fancy or high-tech that's required, and you don't need to spend money on a therapist," Bauer-Wu pointed out.
"It's right there, it's self-care," she said. "People can heal themselves."
More information
For more on expressive-writing therapy, visit the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
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