Poetry and Story Therapy: The Healing Power of Creative Expression
Geri Giebel Chavis
Poetry and short stories can act as powerful springboards to growth, self-enhancement and healing. With the guidance of a facilitator, participants can engage with their own creative expression, and with that of others, and in doing so find opportunities to voice their truth, affirm their strengths, and find new ways of coping with challenges.
This accessible book explores the therapeutic possibilities of poetry and stories, exploring ways of selecting appropriate works for discussion, and providing techniques for facilitating personally relevant and growth-enhancing sessions. The author provides ideas and suggestions for personal writing activities that emerge from or intertwine with this discussion, and explains how participants can create their own poetic and narrative pieces using other media, such as music, photographs, film, paintings, objects, and physical movement. The book references a wide variety of specific poems, short stories and films to use as prompts to creative writing, and contains a useful bibliography of poetry collections, story anthologies and film resources as well as a list of further resources and template feedback forms.
Combining theory with a multitude of case examples and innovative ideas for practical, experiential activities, this book is a valuable introduction for creative arts therapy students and practitioners, mental health and medical professionals, and anyone else interested in the healing possibilities of creative expression.
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About Geri Giebel Chavis
Reviews for Poetry and Story Therapy: The Healing Power of Creative Expression
Journal of Poetry Therapy This is an excellent resource for anyone who is interested in using stories in a therapeutic context. The author's focus is on using a written text or reading aloud from a text rather than oral storytelling however there is still much that is useful for the storyteller. In reading I was reawakened to the potential that stories have to facilitate healing and change lives. Chavis uses stories and poems to work with clients and in the book she outlines how she chooses the texts and works with them. There is a short section on folk and fairy tales and I was interested to read that the author likes to work with client's most memorable story. The reason it is memorable is because it resonates strongly with the client's psyche and can help to reveal aspects that have been suppressed or hidden.
Storylines Envisaged as a "primer of poetry therapy"(primarily for readers outside of the United States), this wonderful book thoroughly explores the therapeutic possibilities of poetry and story, as well as considering some wider aspects of creative writing practice. It will be of interest to both students and practitioners of creative arts therapies within the medical and health professions, as well to those working in other settings that use the healing possibilities of creative expression.
Lapidus Journal