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By: Luisa Perez MA, LAC, NCC, Clinician
Reading, writing, and sharing poetry can have beneficial impacts on mental health and well-being by helping to reduce anxiety, decrease stress, boost self-awareness, promote emotional expression, and much more. Reading, writing, and sharing poetry can also help individuals feel connected to themselves and with those around them. When sharing poetry in safe spaces, social bonds can be formed as lived experiences are shared. This can help restore, heal, and strengthen our mental health (Xiang & Yi, 2020). Using poetry as an outlet of self-expression is also an empowering way to strengthen one’s identity and voice and provide healing through self-empathy (Hovey et al., 2018).
On March 15, 2024, the School Based Clinical Services of Wellspring Center for Prevention hosted Alyea Pierce from State Theatre New Jersey. She presented an inspiring workshop for students at Metuchen High School. Attendees were engaged in creative writing exercises that inspired a deeper level of reflection of their internal and external world – what feelings are showing up and how to navigate through those feelings using poetic tools. Through metaphors and similes, students shared beautiful imagery to describe their name—and in essence who they are. The mindful exercise reminded students that their names matter, they matter, and their experience matters. Throughout the workshop, student attendees supported each other in sharing ideas and meaningful experiences. The poetry workshop provided a nonjudgemental space and safe atmosphere that helped students explore and express their poetic creativity.
Overall, the student response was positive as conveyed through the post-event survey. Students reported that they found the poetry workshop helpful and indicated interest in attending additional poetry events or similar creative expression workshops in the future. Students also reported gaining valuable insights and learning new and positive ways to express themselves. To further inspire students to embrace these creative and empowering strategies as a coping tool that can strengthen sense of self, voice, and self-agency (Xiang & Yi, 2020), attendees were provided journals and customized pens to encourage continued use of learned poetic devices beyond the poetry workshop. We look forward to hosting a second workshop this new school year and have high hopes that these events will continue to positively impact the mental health of our student population.
References:
Hovey, R. B., Khayat, V. C., & Feig, E. (2018, September 1). Cathartic poetry: Healing through narrative. The Permanente journal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6045501/
Xiang, D. H., & Yi, A. M. (2020). A look back and a path forward: Poetry’s healing power during the pandemic. Journal of Medical Humanities, 41(4), 603–608. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-020-09657-z