Writing Your Healing Story
An Interview with Author and Therapist Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.
Linda Joy Myers is a pioneer in the field of writing as a tool for healing. In this interview, she offers her thoughts on the healing process and recommends specific techniques for writing your healing story.
Suite 101: You talk about memoir writing as a healing journey. Could you elaborate?
Linda Joy: When you write your story and speak your truth, the act of capturing events of your life and trying to understand their meaning introduces a level of self-reflection that we may avoid in "regular" life. Many people have parts of themselves hidden away--things like unfilled dreams, shame, and longing. Most of us have secret wishes, traumas, and regrets that create a burden in our souls. Writing our stories brings these feelings into the light. As we write, we inhabit two perspectives: the character "I," which is subjective, and the narrator "I," who witnesses the story from a distance. This dual point of view creates an integration in the mind and a new relationship with who we were then and who we are now. Dr. James Pennebaker, a pioneer in the study of expressive writing as a tool for healing, calls story, "A way of knowledge." I tell my students, let the story guide you and heal you.
Suite 101: Tell us about your book, Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story. How does your book facilitate healing?
Linda Joy: Becoming Whole takes the reader on a healing journey--into self, into story step-by-step. The book supports memoir writers as it helps them find their own unique voices and tell the truth. A portion of the book presents family psychology. I am a family therapist and have seen in my workshops how helpful it is for people to learn about their family dynamics and patterns. These patterns appear as themes that weave throughout a memoir. Many people are trying to heal deep wounds as they write, and others are writing to leave a legacy. This book shows them a way to do both.
Suite 101: What are some specific techniques for writing yourself well?
Linda Joy: The most important is to tell the truth of your life without censoring. There is a reason that psychotherapy, the confessional, and memoir writing are healing--they all provide a safe place for the person to tell the deepest truths and to come to terms with them. Suppression and holding back cause dis-ease, unease. Another technique is to create a safe space and protect the writing from the eyes of others. Write regularly, but it does not have to be every day. The research about writing as a healing technique proves that writing a total of 60 minutes over a period of weeks created significant benefits.
Suite 101: Is it healthy to focus on the dark portions of life for long? Could that push someone to into despondency?
Linda Joy: I teach my students to balance the dark and the light stories. Writing about happiness, blessings, and gratitude helps to remind us of the joys of life, the positive aspects that give us hope and inspiration. Write pieces about the sensuality and beauty of the world. Most of all, realize that life is made up of light and shadow, and accept it. Using humor and irony is a great way to view life events. If there are darker and more painful feelings and memories, writing directly and succinctly about them gets them out of the body and onto the page where we develop a new relationship to these events. Dr. Pennebaker says about the darker stories, "If you feel reluctant to write something, don't." Very practical advice.
Suite 101: What tips could you offer for taming the inner censor?
Linda Joy: We have some kind of inner critic voice, and when it is too loud, we feel blocked and quit writing. Various exercises help to lessen the power of the inner critic. One technique that works well is to write down what the critic is saying on a separate sheet of paper and then continue writing your piece. If that is not enough--I myself have a very harsh inner critic--then you need to write down what the critic says and create a dialogue with it. For example, if it says, "You have no right to write that story," the rebuttal is, "I am telling my truth, no one else's, and I have the right to my own voice."
To learn more about Linda Joy Myers and writing your healing story, visit NAMW.
Linda Joy Myers
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