What is Stress?
Definition: Stress is an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive to be dangerous.
Sources of stress:Catastrophes, major life changes, daily hassles.
Physical response to Stress:
The fight or flight response: heart rate and breathing increase, muscles tense, blood pressure goes up. The hormone cortisol is released into the blood stream to access sugar and fats to aid in the body’s response to the perceived threat. Some acute stress is needed to allow the body to function adequately for safety. E.g. to respond to a fire or avoid an accident. Chronic stress leads to increased blood pressure, overworked hearts, and diabetes from increasing weight gain (possibly due to excess blood levels of cortisol).
There are three stages of stress: alarm , resistance and exhaustion.
Stage I.
Alarm: The body responds to the stressor (work, argument with spouse, money, children etc)
Stage II
Resistance: The body adapts to the stressor.
Stage III
Exhaustion: The body is chronically overactive, resistance fails and the body becomes vulnerable to disease or even death.
What is Poetry Therapy?
Poetry therapy and bibliotherapy are terms used synonymously to describe the intentional use of poetry and other forms of literature for healing and personal growth. The term "biblio" means "books" and by extension, literature. "Therapy" is derived from the Greek word "therapeia," meaning "to serve or help medically," and suggests the concept of healing. Basically then, bibliotherapy is the use of literature to promote mental health (Hynes & Hynes-Berry, 1994). The poetic elements play a central role in heightening the emotional impact of the literature with the potential for catharsis-cleansing through the release of emotion.
History of Poetry Therapy
Poetry therapy can be traced far back to primitive man. It was used during religious rites whereby shamans and witchdoctors chanted poetry for the wellbeing of the tribe or the individual.
In ancient Egypt, works were written on papyrus, then dissolved in a solution and swallowed so the effects of the words could be quickly experienced.
In the Bible, around 1030 B.C., David’s poetic words soothed King Saul.
The first Poetry Therapist on record was a Roman physical named Soranus in the 1st century. He prescribed tragedy for his manic patients and comedy for his depressed ones.
Apollo is the god of Poetry as well as medicine, not surprising since medicine and the art of healing words were historically entwined.
It is interesting to note, Pennsylvania Hospital (the oldest hospital in the United States of America), utilized many ancillary treatments for its disturbed patients; including reading, writing and publishing of the works.
Throughout modern times there are many instances of physicians using poems and writing to assist their patients through many instances of severe trauma including rape and addictions. One poet, Joy Shieman, in 1962 described poetry therapy as “realignment of the soul”.
There are several publications which reflect the increasing interest in Poetry Therapy. Here is a brief listing:
The Poetry Cure: The Medicine Chest of Verse, Music and Picture by R.H. Shauffler, 1927
The Healing Power of Poetry by Dr Smiley Blanton MD,-1960
Principles of Poetry Therapy by Eli Griefer, 1963
In 1987 NAPT (National Association of Poetry Therapists) started The Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education.
This association comprises psychotherapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. They are poets, journal keepers, storytellers, and songwriters. They are teachers, librarians, adult educators, and university professors. They are doctors, nurses, occupational/ recreational therapists; ministers, pastoral counselors, and spiritual directors. We are artists, dancers, dramatists, musicians, and writers.
The first comprehensive training program for Poetry Therapists was created in 1974.
Excerpts from:
Journal of Poetry Therapy, Vol.10, No 3, 1997 Poetry Therapy: Testimony on Capital Hill
Sherry Reiter, C.S.W., RPT, RDT
GOALS:
The basic goal of poetry therapy is to promote change which will result in increased coping skills and adaptive functions to work through underlying conflicts. The specific goals of poetry therapy may be identified as follows:
- to improve the capacity to respond to vivid images and concepts,
and the feelings aroused by them;
- to enhance self-understanding and accuracy in self-perception;
- to increase awareness of interpersonal relationships;
- to heighten reality orientation;
- to develop creativity, self-expression and greater self-esteem;
- to encourage positive thinking and creative problem-solving;
- to strengthen communication, particularly listening and speaking skills;
- to integrate the different aspects of the self for psychological wholeness;
- to ventilate overpowering emotions and release tension;
- to find new meaning through new ideas, insights, and/or information;
- to help participants experience the liberating and nourishing qualities of beauty.
Medical Programs which utilize Poetry Therapy.
This is an eight week program at the University of California, San Diego called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction or MBSR which utilizes Poetry Therapy.
http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/psych
Some of the problems that are dealt with in this program are:
Chronic pain
Stress
Anxiety or worry
Chronic or acute life threatening illness
Depression
Relationship difficulties
Substance abuse
Sleep disturbance
Hypertension
Headaches
Grief and Loss.
Requirements for writing Poetry:
Writing poetry requires very little: your mind (and it really doesn’t have to be clear), your hand, pen, paper. The therapeutic value is priceless.
- What I have found is that being alone works the best. Being with your thoughts without distractions allows you to be free with words.
- Don’t concern yourself with spelling or whether the lines rhyme.
There are no hard and fast rules for self expression. This is all yours and you can do whatever you want with it.
- You do not have to be an English major, rocket scientist or any other brilliant mind.
All it takes is YOU and YOUR feelings.
- If what you’re writing overwhelms you (especially after a loss of some kind) allow yourself to cry. Don’t fight it. (I always felt better after a good cry.)
- Don’t force yourself to write. Write when you feel the urge to. (I have been woken up at 4 am some days by a poem that just had to be written!)
- Take a writing class. You may find that you have real talent for it. HCC has a great creative writing class. (I know, I took it!)
www.hccfl.edu
- Most of all let writing poetry do its job. It allows you to express yourself whenever you want, however you want.
Writing allows you to look back at what you wrote and see for yourself what you were thinking and feeling at a particular time.
When you write your thoughts down, they somehow take on a separate existence and you can look at them objectively. This allows you to distance yourself from the painful event and move away from it.
This was my experience.
Use of Poetry Therapy During Medical School
Training
I have taken the liberty to précis some of the information found in this article to save space
The researchers were Shapiro, J. and Stein, T. This article was published in Family, Systems and Health, pub. Sept 22, 2005.
The researchers reviewed poetry written by medical students to gain insights into the students’ emotional response when dealing with their patients. The purpose was to evaluate how the students related to their patients and what benefits, if any, the students received from the experience.
The conclusion was that writing poetry may exert a healing influence on students and appears to be one way students can make emotional sense of the different relational systems they encounter over the course of their training.
CONCLUSION:
Poetry Therapy is a “non traditional” form of therapy and is still in the early stages of public acceptance. It can be traced back to primitive man, the early Romans and Greeks. It has been utilized in this country since the 1700s. It is a very inexpensive form of therapy; it can be done anywhere, at anytime.
It can also begin a lucrative new career for those with a talent for writing.
From my own personal experience, writing poetry gave me freedom to grieve for my loss and to recover in a way that enriches my life every day because I know how cathartic it is to express myself freely with my pen.
