Writing as therapy

By Daniel Francis

Since starting my publishing company, One Momentum Publishing, I have come across many talented writers with many amazing stories. Some will send their work; I will read it and give them feedback.

Others I get the pleasure of sampling their work during the publishing process. However, many need guidance in the writing stage. For most, writing is the most difficult part of the process. It takes discipline to make the time to write on a consistent basis. This is why there are so many unfinished manuscripts out there.

Interestingly enough, you would be surprised by how much growth comes from writing. For instance, when I wrote my first book, it forced me to elevate my game.

As my first book was a self-help book, I had to pay special attention to all the advice and research that was included in my book. I did not want to put something false in my book and lower its credibility.

Through the process of meticulously writing my book, I was forced to increase my value to ensure that my book was up to snuff. Many authors have shared similar sentiments while writing their books.

There is also another way that writing can be used to help us grow which can be easily overlooked.

Recently, a friend reached out to me about wanting to write a book. The book will be about their life and the difficult trials she has had to endure. I knew the terrible challenges she had experienced and had to overcome in her life.

I thought it was brave of her to want to pen this book and potentially help those who have experienced similar negative experiences. Just knowing that there can be a light at the end of the tunnel will help so many, I decided to aid her in her writing journey by becoming her accountability partner.

Every other day, I would check in with her to see how much she had written. At first, she made many excuses to start writing. I went the first two weeks asking for updates but the only update I got was that she was too busy to start.

I remained persistent with my check-ins and eventually, she told me she had started writing and I was very excited to hear that. She wrote and wrote and wrote. Each week I was getting positive updates. After a few weeks, my friend said I could stop checking in as often because she was getting into a rhythm.

After a few weeks had passed she called me. She was amazed at an unexpected byproduct that came from writing. As she wrote about the experiences in her life, she had great difficulty in giving details of the most traumatic and negative experiences, but she always found a great level of catharsis from the experience. As difficult as it was to return to those moments in her memories and to commit them to her book, she found a great sense of release that came from eventually writing them down.

She recalled that when she started therapy her therapist encouraged her to journal, to write out in as much detail as possible those traumatic experiences that have been plaguing her.

At the time she could not see the value in revisiting those memories. She believed her therapist was wasting her time and stopped attending sessions. She realised while writing her book how wrong she was for not giving it a try back then.

Journalling for mental health is a great way especially for those with post-traumatic stress disorder or complex trauma to create a space to process their emotions without fear or judgement.

You don’t have to publish your writing like my friend plans to do so you can potentially say the unsayable when journalling out these experiences. It becomes a pillar of growth and release for you.

I would go a step further and say write letters to God. Write out all that you have been unable to say to anyone in letters to God. Trust that He will help you process these pains, deliver relief, and guide you to the next steps.

We tend to be more elaborate and detailed when writing as we can edit our words. Try out writing as therapy and see if it has a positive impact on you.

Daniel Francis is a millennial helping other millennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.

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