7 Steps to Expressive Writing

In expressive writing you simply write about your disturbing thoughts and very private feelings. No one need ever see what you write—even you don't have to read what flows from your pen. This process can let you vent feelings and reduce tension, face issues that seemed unmanageables, and admit to emotions that seemed inadmissable. Expressive writing is more about allowing disclosure than about the actual writing. It can also bring clarity to issues that felt overwhelming. 

1. On a clean sheet of paper, write for 20 minutes each day for three consecutive days about your most distressing issue or upsetting experience.
2. Since this is not a writing exercise per se, do not worry about style. The aim is to write contiuously without stopping and without worrying about grammar, wording, or logic. Just write, without hesitation, about your thougths and feelings.
3. Explore your deepest thoughts and feeligns without reserve. No one will read this, not even you if you choose not to. 
4. Put what you have written safely away.
5. On the second day, using new paper, write again about your most distressing issue for 20 minutes. You can focus on the previous day's topic or you can select a different issue. But it is important that you explore your deepest thougths and feelings. Again, after 20 minutes, put your writing away in a safe and private place.
6. On day three, the final day of your expressive writing experience, write without any reservations about your deepest feelings and thoughts on any distressing personal issue. Your topic could be the same issue as before, a related one, or a completely different one. 
7. Again, when you have finished 20 minutes of free-writing, put your writing away. Keep or dispose of it in whatever way feels right to you. If stressful thoughts recur, we encourage patients to repeat the three-day process.

For more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, call (847) 230-9107 or visit BlockMD.com.