My Mission

My wife underwent Stage 4 breast cancer treatment for sixteen years before her death. Writing poetry proved to be a unique and significant aid in helping me through this traumatic period. I developed an Expressive Writing syllabus so my experience might help others. 

As a volunteer with the American Cancer Society, I have facilitated since 2023 group meetings for patients and caregivers titled WRITING FOR WELL-BEING: An Introduction to Emotional Healing through Expressive Writing.

My objective for the Expressive Writing group is to equip patients and caregivers with an additional tool to deal with the trauma of cancer, both during and after treatment. Each session runs about an hour. There is no writing during class, but participants are given guidance and handouts to enable them to write poems on their own. 

Writing expressively about traumatic experiences is a kind of medicine. Research has shown singular benefits in Expressive Writing, unlike journaling or creative writing. Over the long term people, feel happier and less negative than before Expressive Writing. There is general enhancement in immune system function, and significant benefits are seen for cancer patients in particular – in physical health, reduced physical symptoms, reduced pain overall, better sleep, and higher functioning. 

Here a brief summary of some of the findings:

1.  Enhanced immune system function 

2.  For cancer patients in particular: significant benefits in physical health, reduced physical symptoms, reduced pain overall, better sleep, and higher functioning

3.  Long term: people felt happier & less negative than before writing 

Some of the recent science about the health benefits of reading and writing poetry:

·  A 2013 article in the Journal of Consciousness Studies reported poetry activated brain regions associated with introspection. The emotional response to literature shares ground with response to music, and regions of the right hemisphere are engaged by poetry.

·  MRIs show the brain seems to be wired to recognize the rhymes and rhythms that poets use, and differentiate them from ordinary speech or prose. They've also found that contemplating poetic imagery and the multiple layers of meanings in poems activates specific areas of the brain – some of the same areas that help us interpret everyday reality. 

·  A 2017 study by the Max Planck Institute said:

·  Every participant claimed to have felt chills at some point when reading the poems, and about forty percent showed visible goose bumps.

·  Scans taken during the study showed that listening to the poems activated parts of participants’ brains that, as other studies have shown, are not activated when listening to music or watching films.

·  While listening to poems they found particularly evocative, the listeners subconsciously anticipated the coming emotional arousal in a way that was neurologically similar to the reward anticipation one might get from, say, unwrapping a chocolate bar.

·  A 2021 study of hospitalized children found that providing opportunities for them to read and write poetry reduced their fear, sadness, anger, worry, and fatigue. increase engagement on your social media platforms.

To register for a Zoom session of WRITING FOR WELL-BEING: An Introduction to Emotional Healing through Expressive Writing, email me at peterwyaremko@gmail.com.