Writing as Healing (Part 1)
As I prepare to teach Somatic Writing as Healing, I’m rereading our textbook Writing as a Way of Healing by Louise DeSalvo. Like magic, healing happens in the body. That’s why Beth Brewer (LCSW, RYT) and I have designed the class around the 5 senses: touch, taste, hearing, smell, and sight. Each week we’ll explore writing that focuses on a different sense. Beth will also be keeping us grounded through meditations and leading us through somatic exercises.
The word “healing” is thrown around so much, I want to define it more succinctly. What is healing? How can writing be healing?
“What is healing but a shift in perspective?” Mark Doty
But how does shift happen? One specific way writers can make shift happen is by creating what DeSalvo calls “an image of restitution.” She explains how “the act of writing about something painful can help right a wrong that has been done to you.” In Julia Feraca’s poem about her authoritarian father, an image of his “frayed and tattered trousers” creates such an image. DeSalvo writes that the image “defrocked him…robbed him of his power.” It also allowed Feraca to look at her now elderly father with compassion. This in turn empowered her to have a better relationship with him. Shift happened.