What to do when you have many traumatic experiences to choose from?

Pennebaker : Focus on the event or issue that you are thinking about most at the time. You can always change topics as needed.

Is it a type of therapy?

Pennebaker : It can be therapy but… it was a method I had tried on my own and discovered that it seemed to work amazingly well. I prefer to call it a method rather than a therapy.

Why write three times or why for 15 minutes?

Pennebaker : The simple answer is that is what we have found what works. But, since the original studies in the 1980s, many researchers (including me) have found that there is no one true way to write. Some studies have found that writing for as little as 2 minutes or as long as 30 minutes can be beneficial. Most studies have varied between 2 and 5 writing times with comparable effects. Sometimes people write multiple times on the same day. If you are thinking of trying out writing for yourself, experiment. See what works.

Are there any situations where it is contraindicated?

Pennebaker : There is no solid evidence to suggest specific situations where expressive writing would be contraindicated. However, in my experience, I would be reticent to urge people to write in the immediate aftermath of a major upheaval. I generally recommend that people write if they are thinking about an upsetting event too much. If a person is thinking about the death of a very close friend all the time in the days after the event, this is not too much. It's probably normal. But if they are thinking about the same death a year later, I'd consider that too much. A second circumstance where I would not recommend expressive writing would be when someone is in the depths of a depressive episode. People are already heavily self-focused when deeply depressed and writing naturally encourages more self-reflection. Despite these two potential cautions about writing, I've met people who have really wanted to write immediately after a major upheaval or even when deeply depressed and who report that they benefited. As with all psychotherapy, if a person feels that a method is not working or is harmful, they should stop it and try something else.

How can expressive writing impact a person's mental health?

For individuals who have undergone a major traumatic or stressful incident, expressive writing can have the following beneficial therapeutic effects: 1. Writing about a painful, stressful, negative life-event can help one arrange their complicated emotions and thoughts in a much more relatable way. 2. Writing seems to create a psychological distance from one's pain. And this dulls one's feeling of the pain that comes with a memory of the event. 3. Putting feelings into words also gives the writer an advantage of readability. Once written, instead of looking back at the memory, they can look at the words and reappraise their trauma more objectively. This could help them find a new meaning in their experience and discover healing.

Expressive Writing: Do Your Own Therapy; Heal Your Trauma

• Mar 7, 2025 • Read in ~9 mins

— By Dr. Sandip Roy.

Writing in a certain way can help you heal from your past trauma, overcome the related stress, and find your peace. Called the expressive writing technique, it is like doing your own therapy.

The best part, it is a freely accessible form of therapy.

Psychologists have shown that writing about traumatic experiences can have remarkable health benefits:

reduced health problems (Greenberg & Stone, 1992)
heightened immune function (Esterling & Antoni, 1994)
better adjustment to college (Pennebaker & Sharp, 1990)
lower skin conductance levels (Pennebaker & O’Heeron, 1987)
more quickly finding employment after being laid off (Spera & Buhrfeind, 1994)
greater compatibility in brain wave activity across the cerebral halves (Pennebaker & Susman, 1988)

Feelings To Words: When you give shape to your feelings as written words, they help you heal from your unresolved mental trauma.

A Little About Expressive Writing

Expressive writing therapy, developed by James Pennebaker and Sandra Beall, involves writing our deep thoughts and feelings about a negative experience from the past. It helps resolve the emotional trauma and promote emotional healing.

Expressive writing for about 2 to 30 minutes can help bring out its therapeutic effects.
Writing about past trauma helps us link the past trauma to other aspects of our lives, which can make it easier to understand our feelings and actions.
It also seems to change how the brain organizes the emotional experiences related to the trauma, which might be why it feels therapeutic.
Even though it can get emotionally intense, writers usually feel highly engaged and report a cathartic benefit later on.

You can do it on your own, under the guidance of a therapist, or in groups over common/separate topics. It can also be an addition to any other therapy.

It’s also known as writing therapy, expressive disclosure, emotional disclosure, or disclosure therapy.

“Research by Pennebaker and his colleagues supports the healing power of writing about traumatic events.” — King & Miner (2000)

8 Laws of Expressive Writing

Setting: Find a place where you won’t be disturbed.
Duration: Write for a minimum of 15 minutes a day.
Frequency: Continue this process for 4-5 consecutive days.
Topic: Focus on the most traumatic or upsetting experience of your life.
Content: Explore your deepest emotions and thoughts related to the experience.
Connection: Consider how the experience might be related to other parts of your life, such as your childhood, relationships, or other changes you’ve experienced.
Expression: Write continuously without worrying about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. You just need to “pour your heart out on the blank page.” The goal is to express your thoughts and feelings authentically.
Reflection: After writing, reflect to understand why you think so much about the emotional trauma, and what exactly is bothering you.

5 Steps of Expressive Writing

These five simple steps are clubbed as WRITE:

W – What: What would you like to write about? — name it.
R – Reflect/Review: Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and reflect/review the topic.
I – Investigate: Investigate your thoughts and feelings, and start to write.
T – Time: Time the writing for 5 to 15 minutes a day for 4–5 days.
E – End: End by re-reading and summarizing in one or two sentences.

Midnight Meditations: Calm Your Thoughts, Still Your Body, and Return to Sleep

Writing Prompts for Self-Reflection & Self-Discovery

These prompts will help you express a past event to gain deeper self-awareness and meaning:

Reflect on a moment when you felt overwhelmed with emotion. What triggered this feeling? How did you respond, and what did it teach you about yourself?

Think about a significant challenge you’ve overcome. What strengths did you discover within yourself? How has this experience shaped your life’s path?

Write about a time when you had to make a difficult decision. What values guided you? How did these values become part of your identity, and how do they influence your current choices?

Consider an event from your past that still affects you. How have you coped with this experience? In what ways has it influenced your relationships and behaviors?

Envision your ideal future. What steps are you taking to achieve this vision? What fears or doubts arise when you think about this journey, and how can you address them?

Pennebaker’s Original Experiment

In 1983, Professor James Pennebaker recruited 46 undergraduates for a study. They had to visit his lab for four days running. Each day, they wrote for 15 minutes on the biggest trauma, or the most difficult time, of their lives.

The common themes they explored were:

deaths
lost loves
tragic failures
sexual and physical abuse

The immediate experience was one of upset. Some participants even cried.

For the next few days, these students were found to have higher blood pressure and negative moods.

Pennebaker kept a watch on them for the next six months. His findings, published later in 1986, were eye-opening. During those six months, these students made fewer visits to their college health center.

It seemed as if the expressive writing had increased their immunity to diseases. It started a new field of study — psychoneuroimmunology.

Pennebaker later co-wrote a book on it: Expressive Writing: Words that Heal.

Scientific Support For Expressive Writing (Replication Studies)

Since those initial experiments in the 1980s, several studies could replicate Pennebaker’s findings, and add more.

In this study on women with breast cancer, it was found that, after expressive writing, they had fewer symptoms that needed a visit to their doctors. They made fewer cancer-related appointments in the next 3 months.
King & Miner (2000) found people who only wrote about the positive side of painful life events, were able to confront, control, and arrange their thoughts and feelings about their traumas without having to re-experience the event deeply.
Vrielynck & Philippot (2010) found the degree of specificity used in the writing seems to relate to the stage of relief. Specifying a stressful event resulted in less distress during the next writing sessions. It helped writers make sense of the event, and feel less anger when thinking about the event.

Positive Expressive Writing: Jotting For Joy

Expressive writing can help resolve a mental trauma from a negative event. But there is another side to it too.

Researchers found that writing about a positive memory could raise our happiness levels.

Burton & King found that writing about an intensely positive experience (IPE) for 20 minutes a day for 3 days can increase feeling of wellbeing, and was also linked to fewer health center visits.
McCullough, Root, & Cohen found people who write about the benefits of the wounds they received from others become less distant, more benevolent, and less vengeful toward the wrongdoer. This tempers their stance toward their transgressor and helps them forgive.

FAQs

What to do when you have many traumatic experiences to choose from?
Pennebaker: Focus on the event or issue that you are thinking about most at the time. You can always change topics as needed.
Is it a type of therapy?
Pennebaker: It can be therapy but… it was a method I had tried on my own and discovered that it seemed to work amazingly well. I prefer to call it a method rather than a therapy.
Why write three times or why for 15 minutes?
Pennebaker: The simple answer is that is what we have found what works. But, since the original studies in the 1980s, many researchers (including me) have found that there is no one true way to write.
Some studies have found that writing for as little as 2 minutes or as long as 30 minutes can be beneficial. Most studies have varied between 2 and 5 writing times with comparable effects.
Sometimes people write multiple times on the same day. If you are thinking of trying out writing for yourself, experiment. See what works.
Are there any situations where it is contraindicated?
Pennebaker: There is no solid evidence to suggest specific situations where expressive writing would be contraindicated.
However, in my experience, I would be reticent to urge people to write in the immediate aftermath of a major upheaval. I generally recommend that people write if they are thinking about an upsetting event too much.
If a person is thinking about the death of a very close friend all the time in the days after the event, this is not too much. It’s probably normal. But if they are thinking about the same death a year later, I’d consider that too much.
A second circumstance where I would not recommend expressive writing would be when someone is in the depths of a depressive episode. People are already heavily self-focused when deeply depressed and writing naturally encourages more self-reflection.
Despite these two potential cautions about writing, I’ve met people who have really wanted to write immediately after a major upheaval or even when deeply depressed and who report that they benefited.
As with all psychotherapy, if a person feels that a method is not working or is harmful, they should stop it and try something else.
How can expressive writing impact a person’s mental health?
For individuals who have undergone a major traumatic or stressful incident, expressive writing can have the following beneficial therapeutic effects:
1. Writing about a painful, stressful, negative life-event can help one arrange their complicated emotions and thoughts in a much more relatable way.
2. Writing seems to create a psychological distance from one’s pain. And this dulls one’s feeling of the pain that comes with a memory of the event.
3. Putting feelings into words also gives the writer an advantage of readability. Once written, instead of looking back at the memory, they can look at the words and reappraise their trauma more objectively. This could help them find a new meaning in their experience and discover healing.

Final Words

Let’s close this with a fabulous and memorable quote from James Pennebaker:

“Theories are grand, but never take them too seriously. Their importance is in guiding research. If your data does not support your theory, trust the data more than your theory.”
— James Pennebaker

√ Also Read: 10 Facts About Quiet People From Psychology