“I believe in poetry as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions and traumatic events that come with being alive” — Gregory Orr
While I was in graduate school, working my way toward a PhD in counseling psychology, I focused some of my papers on poetry as a vehicle for healing. At the time, I was also a poet in residence at many local schools, grades K-6. Children often expressed to me how much poetry meant to them. One specific comment that led me to specialize in poetry therapy was written by a 4th grader. The student wrote, “Every time I write a poem, I fall in love with it,” and I was hooked. I taught children for over twenty-five years.
After receiving my MFT license in 1991, I felt encouraged to also facilitate poetry writing groups as an experiment for therapy at Sanctuary Centers. I still hold these groups weekly and they are often coupled with art therapy groups as well. Every day, I find myself as inspired by what our clients write and share as I was during that very first “experiment.” Our participants come from varied backgrounds, abilities, and ages as they seek recovery from varying challenges.
Psychiatrist Jack Leedy, founder of NAPT and author of Poetry Therapy (1969) wrote, “Poetry is a guide to the hidden mind and to a more creative and enriching life.” Poet and physician Rafael Campo writes that in poetry “we discover courage, comfort, and ultimately precious wisdom.” Writing toward healing has the potential to organize the hurricane of thoughts and feelings on a particular subject, to reduce anxiety and further understand the self with new eyes.
Poetry therapy is defined by the National Association of Poetry Therapy (NAPT) as “promoting growth and healing through written language, symbol and story” to serve or help participants. The literature used in poetry therapy is always accessible, promoting hope and connecting clients to the author of a particular poem or story for the purposes of self-expression and personal growth. Poetry therapy also benefits participants by helping to define and strengthen the “I” – the Self – while providing insights and increasing self-esteem. While the focus of poetry as an art form is the poem itself, both art form and therapy use the same tools and techniques, with the ultimate understanding that poetry is the language of the heart. I believe writing poetry is a way of giving sound, sense, and shape to the unexpressed silence and feelings within, and I believe this is what makes poetry effective as a therapy.
It is true that poetry can often strike people as intimidating. The language is too remote, they complain. The emotion is buried too deep under big words, or the experience is too esoteric to meet the needs of the reader. This is why, in poetry therapy, it is absolutely essential that the literature be understandable and interesting. It must speak directly to the heart with rich imagery that evokes feelings and memory. Beyond inspiring hope, it is also helpful if the musicality of the poem, the rhythms, are strong. Clients learn that rhyme is not essential in poetry, as contemporary poetry mostly does not rhyme but rather creates music through repetition of lines, phrases, and word sounds in the absence of whole rhymes. Selection of material is often based on the “isoprinciple” used in music therapy, meaning poems are chosen in the hopes that the emotion or subject matter will align with the mood of the group.
The process begins with a reminder that safety is of utmost importance, as is confidentiality. Anything clients say or write will never be judged, only valued. Each week’s session centers on a particular theme, often based on a feeling such as loneliness, shame, embarrassment, joy, anger, anxiety, depression, etc. Clients may have difficulty being able to express these feelings, which are often catalysts for crucial self-expression. Other examples of themes are often recovery, mistakes, friendship, family, mindfulness, goals, and coping skills.
During check-in, clients name a feeling they are experiencing as well as something notable that has occurred in the past week. Copies of poem/s are handed out to each client. The poems are read twice by two volunteers. Often a silence occurs as clients survey and absorb the words. Discussion begins with a focus on lines or phrases that are meaningful for members of the group. What does the poem remind them of in their own life? Where do they find themselves in the poem? Some clients may ask what a particular line means, or even talk about why they do not like the poem.
The discussion is meant to inspire the subsequent writing. We are not fixated on what the poems mean intellectually, but rather emotionally. I may speak a line back to the group that could be a starting point for writing. In addition, I may offer other potential prompts as well. After a period of about fifteen to twenty minutes of pure writing, the clients are invited to share their poems; though it is highly encouraged, sharing is never required. The group, myself included, spends time giving supportive feedback as a way of furthering connection. Realizing that others think and feel in a similar way is a powerful tool for dispelling the feeling of isolation our clients often feel. Focus can be an issue, so clients might read their poem aloud to the group more than once, so that certain meaningful lines can be noted as especially impactful. After a reading, a group member may ask the poet to repeat a certain line for emphasis. Clients feel valued when asked to repeat something another group member specifically wants to remember.
Poetry has a mysterious way of revealing hidden memories and imagination. A recent theme of one of our sessions was “Questions that often can’t be answered.” A poem of many such questions was presented by Pablo Neruda titled “Questions.” One of the clients’ favorite lines was “Where is the child that I was—inside of me still—or gone?” Another was from Mary Oliver’s poem “A Summer Day” where she describes in detail a grasshopper’s movements all day. “Tell me what else I should have done? Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” One client wrote about what they should have done or would have liked to do. Another wrote all the questions they were trying to understand about themselves. Still another – a client struggling with depression – wrote that they thought their life had been a “burden,” but they had had many valuable “wild” adventures when younger, which gave them hope that their life could become “precious after all.”
The gift of poetry therapy can often be resolution, which can lead participants to think about how to integrate insights gleaned from therapy into their days ahead. A poem can be described as a container. It has a distinct shape, filled with feeling, contained within the page. A poem can also be a mirror, reflecting new perspective, possibility, and acceptance of the self. In the spirit of the child who once wrote, “Every time I write a poem, I fall in love with it,” so too do I hope my clients grow to love themselves through the practice of poetry therapy.
About the Author
Perie Longo, PhD, LMFT
Perie Longo, PhD, LMFT is a Registered Poetry Therapist in private practice and has led poetry therapy groups at Sanctuary Centers since 1991. Author of four books of poetry, she is a previous Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara (2007-09). A past president of the National Association of Poetry Therapy, she has been awarded their Outstanding Achievement Award and in 2018 the Pioneer Award for ground breaking and exemplary work that advances the study and practice of poetry therapy. In 2005 she was invited to Kuwait University to speak on the subject as Poetry as a Pathway to Peace. In 2003, Perie discussed poetry therapy on the popular radio show, “The Osgood File”, hosted by Charles Osgood.
