Mindful Writing

Mindful Writing is an expressive practice that focuses on the present moment and silence, introspection, discernment, and other contemplative means. Grief and loss are ubiquitous; sooner or later, we will experience them. We will apply MW as a therapeutic means to examine the gifts within grief and loss. MW uses all the senses without judgment to express true-to-life depictions of our inner and outer experiences. This therapeutic approach aids in the cultivation of more in-depth relationships with clients as they traverse grief. The process moves in three cycles, the intrapersonal, the interpersonal, and the spiritual, offering skillful means to hold the therapeutic space with compassion and kindness.

Mindful Writing provides pathways to wholeness. “Wholeness” includes all aspects of our lives, not just the desirable and the positive, but the neutral, negative, or dislikable. Looking at wholeness as just made of positive experiences is incomplete and creates aversion. This approach sees grief and loss as part of wholeness.

By the end of our time together, you will be able to apply the teaching of compassion and facilitate intrapersonal growth in your clients by using simple practices to get in touch with grief and loss. Additionally, you will employ this knowledge in day-to-day living as you investigate your responses to loss and grief. It is easier to teach what we experience first-hand. You will assess and apply Mindfulness, with its four foundations, to the practice of writing as a therapeutic means of navigating grief and loss. You will see how “Our tendency for self-protection leads us to store the conflicting emotions of grief in some dark, cramped corner of the mind or body. But avoidance or resistance to grief only intensifies the pain.” Fran Ostaseki

You will extrapolate the universal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the collective grief that is ensuing and how to improve clinical outcomes by facilitating MW as a preventative measure.