Recorded Training

Writing the Creative Self in Grief

Based on her own two-year journey of writing the self after the death of her spouse, researcher and writing-the-self professor Reinekke Lengelle invites participants to develop a stronger ‘internal dialogue’ as a part of their resilience. This course demonstrates that losing a loved one (or going through a non-death loss) is not only a matter of re-storying and integrating what has happened, but can also become a learning experience for the self. Participants will receive clear instruction on a number of useful writing exercises, including an accessible poetic creation that asks the question, What has happened to who I am, now that I have suffered this loss? Those taking the course will be introduced to Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory, which defines identity as a “dynamic multiplicity of voices in the landscape of the mind”, and will learn how this conception of self can be used to creatively recruit various inner resources (or selves) when facing challenging transitions. We will clarify when writing is healthy to do in the face of loss and when caution is required. The aim of the course is to show a variety of ways in which creative writing techniques can be used to strengthen resilience. The model of transformation through writing will be explained in order to understand how the process of writing-the-self in grief might unfold and where a particular person may be blocked.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Facilitate clients’ use of Proprioceptive Writing in the face of loss in order to teach them how to begin to listen in and combine expressive and reflective modes of being;
Learn the model of Transformation through Writing in order to understand the stages that are involved when one uses creative writing practices to move from victim/struggle stories to more life-giving narratives of self in the face of loss; and
Facilitate clients’ use of Who am I now poetry to identify key dialogical positions on which they can draw as creative resources.

Earn 1 Credit for Technique Module toward
Certification in Meaning-Focused Grief Therapy
or Certification in Art-Assisted Grief Therapy
Offered by the Portland Institute.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

This program contains the following video segments:

An Introduction: Why Write? (23 mins)
Technique Practice: Proprioceptive Writing (25 mins)
Transformation through Writing: A Dialogical Method (23 mins)
Technique Practice: Who Am I Poetry (24 mins)