In class we met in small groups to answer the question: How does narrative contribute to healing? Here are some of the ideas we came up with. As we talk more about this, we can add more ideas to our list.
-When the health care practitioner listens to the whole illness narrative, he/she can connect with the patient, hear the details, metaphor, etc. and may be able to come to the diagnosis more quickly and come up with a therapeutic plan that meets the needs of the patient
-When the patient is allowed to tell his/her illness story without interruption, that person feels heard, cared for
-When we put words to a traumatic experience, we can organize it, create logic and store the memory in our conscious/explicit brain
-Telling/writing stories satisfies our primal survival instinct to make sense of our surroundings in order to protect ourselves from future harm (Pennebaker 11).
-According to James Pennebaker in his article, “Telling Stories: The Health Benefits of Narrative,” studies suggest that writing leads to better health (increased immune function, lower pain, lower medication use in arthritis patients, improved lung function)
-Figuring out the “Where do I start” is therapeutic
-Writing allows people to not worry about their audience
-Telling the story allows you to discover feelings you didn’t know you had
-Allows for closure
-Allows you to put chaotic feelings into words
-Creating the narrative allows you to better understand your own emotions and relieves stress
-The body won’t be able to heal when we hold the trauma in
-We carry so much weight of our hurting and illness. Narrative allows us to release the weight.
-Allows for uninterrupted story
-Allows language to be used to vent
-Pennebaker writes about his writing and health study in college students and reports that the group who wrote about “their thoughts and feelings drastically reduced their doctor visit rates…” (5). The implications of this point to the saving health care dollars.
Works Cited
Pennebaker, James W. “Telling Stories: The Health Benefits of Narrative.” Literature and Medicine, vol. 19, no. 1, 2000, pp. 3-18.
