Expressive Writing: Almost 50 Years of Research and How We Can Use it to Help
Writing has always been a powerful outlet for me. I’ve used writing as a way to make sense of the complicated and confusing world around me for as long as I can remember. This has looked like rehashing the drama with my peers in grade school; giving voice to the pain from a break up in my early twenties; or reflecting on my memories of loved ones I have lost in my thirties. My journal has been a reliable companion I call on every few months when I need some help.
There is something about putting our experiences into words that can change how we relate to them.
Researchers have been studying a more intentional version of this practice for decades. Expressive Writing isn’t a cure-all for anxiety, depression, and PTSD, but there is evidence that it can offer some psychological benefits.
What is Expressive Writing?
Expressive Writing is an unstructured form of writing that involves putting our thoughts, emotions, and experiences into words. It is a personal and intentional form of writing without regard for form, style, or other writing conventions such as grammar and spelling. There may be a concrete narrative that flows through the beginning, middle, and end. However, often Expressive Writing is disjointed, disorganized, and uncertain.
(Feel free to skip the history lesson, unless you are a nerd like me and want to read about a really interesting study from the 1980s)
The Scientific Study of Expressive Writing & The Impact of Secrets on our Physical Health
One of the most prominent researchers of Expressive Writing is Dr. James Pennebaker, who stumbled on this topic through his research on the connection between physical health and developmental, personality, and situational factors (Pennebaker, 2017).
He sent a survey of 80 questions to a sample size of 800 students and found that 15% of the respondents answered yes to experiencing a traumatic sexual experience prior to the age of 17. Those respondents also reported higher rates of physical health symptoms and increased doctors visits. When conducting subsequent studies and interviews on other samples, he found that it was not just the traumatic experiences that were related to the increased physical health concerns. The people who kept these experiences a secret were the most likely to have a variety of physiological health concerns.
This led to his theory - If keeping a secret about a trauma was unhealthy, would revealing the secret improve health outcomes? Not wanting his participants to need to actually reveal their trauma to another person, he decided to try conducting a writing experiment.
His first expressive writing experiment was conducted in 1983 (APA, 2022), with the following protocol:
Students were randomly assigned (flip of a coin) to two groups: the experimental group and the control group.
The experimental group was randomly assigned to write about a past trauma for 15 minutes/day over the span of 4 days.
The instructions were quite simple:
Explore your deepest thoughts and feelings about a traumatic experience in your life
Write continuously without worrying about spelling and grammar
Explore how this trauma relates to other areas of your life, such as childhood, school, relationships, etc.
You can write about the same traumatic experience each day or something different
The control group was asked to write for 15 minutes/day over the span of 4 days about a more superficial topic such as the shoes they were wearing, their door room, or their approach to time management.
And the results of the study?
The experimental group that wrote about a past trauma ended up going to the student health centre on campus at half of the rate of the control group.
The study was replicated by different researchers two years later and they had similar results (as cited in Pennebaker, 2017).
(Feel free to skip even more if you don’t care about the research and just want to know how to implement intentional therapeutic expressive writing into your self care.)
Research from this Century - Are the benefits of Expressive Writing Delayed?
Guo (2023) conducted a meta-analysis of 31 studies examining whether expressive writing can help reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Based on the research they reviewed, there are a few key findings:
The benefits are real, but modest. Expressive writing was associated with small reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. It is best thought of as a helpful tool rather than a standalone treatment or quick fix.
The benefits may take time to show up. People did not necessarily feel better immediately after writing. Instead, improvements appeared at follow-up and were sustained over time, suggesting that the effects of writing may continue after the writing session itself.
Writing sessions worked better when they were closer together. The strongest effects were found when writing sessions occurred within one to three days of each other, such as writing on consecutive days or every other day.
It may be about more than simply “getting your feelings out.” The author suggested that expressive writing may be particularly helpful when it involves making sense of an experience, exploring emotions, identifying patterns, and developing new perspectives or meaning.
Writing may be a useful addition to your emotional wellness toolkit. Expressive writing is inexpensive, accessible, and doesn't require specialized equipment or training, it can be a relatively simple way to create space for reflection and emotional processing.
How Can We Use Expressive Writing?
Set a timer for 15–20 minutes and write about something that has been weighing on you. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, or making your writing sound good. The goal isn't to produce something polished. It's to put your experience into words.
You might explore:
What happened?
What did you feel?
What did you need?
What made this experience difficult?
How has it affected the way you see yourself or other people?
What are you beginning to understand about the experience?
What do you want to take from it moving forward?
Try doing this three times, with a day or two between each writing session.
Each time, see if you can approach the experience from a slightly different perspective rather than simply telling the exact same story again.
This could look like:
What do you understand about this experience now that you didn't understand when it happened?
What perspective do you hope your future self would take on this situation?
What perspective would you take if a friend was in this situation?
What do you wish our society/community understood about this type of situation?
You don't need to share what you write with anyone. This is for you.
Disclaimer: Expressive writing can be a helpful tool for processing emotions, but it may not be appropriate for every person or situation. If you're working through something particularly painful, ongoing, or difficult to manage on your own, consider talking with a therapist who can support you through the process. Please reach out to us if you need support finding a therapist, even if you aren’t interested in working with me.
Looking for therapy in Edmonton?
At Kindling Psychology, therapy is collaborative, practical, and grounded in the idea that you are the expert on your own experience.
If you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure where to start, you don't need to have everything figured out before reaching out.
Tend to what matters most.
Book a consultation with Kindling Psychology
References:
American Psychological Association. (2022, February 23). The healing power of expressive writing [Audio podcast episode]. Speaking of Psychology. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/expressive-writing
Guo, L. (2023). The delayed, durable effect of expressive writing on depression, anxiety and stress: A meta-analytic review of studies with long-term follow-ups. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62, 272–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12408
Pennebaker J. W. (2018). Expressive Writing in Psychological Science. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 13(2), 226–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617707315
