Written by SAORI | February 20, 2023
If you’ve been through trauma, I’m sure you know really well the negative effect that it can have on your everyday life.
Emotionally troubling events can make you more vulnerable to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, and even lead to the misuse of alcohol, drugs, and other substances.
Expressive writing is a form of journaling that can support you in your healing journey and help you to handle negative emotions caused by traumatic events you’ve experienced.
In fact, research has shown that this technique contributes to alleviate depressive symptoms both among people with major depressive disorders, as well as among depression vulnerable individuals (Krpan et al., 2013, Gortner et al., 2006).
In the next sections, we’ll delve into how you can pratice expressive writing and share with you 11 journal prompts to help you get started.
How to practice expressive writing
To practice expressive writing, you have to recall a troubling event and then write about it in a deep and meaningul way.
It sounds very simple but, as you will realize, the exercise can actually be really challenging because it compels you to confront what has been disturbing you emotionally.
Even though expressive writing might be very uncomfortable, I strongly encourage you to try it since research indicates that it really helps!
Below, you will find 11 expressive writing journal prompts that you can use to start your emotional healing journey and refind inner peace ✨
11 Expressive writing journal prompts for healing
- Think about an emotionally troubling event you’ve experienced. How has it affected your behaviors, belief-system, and your thought processes?
- What coping mechanisms have you been using to deal with negative emotions? What healthy ways can you use to handle them?
- What events trigger your fight or flight response the most? Why do you think these events generate such a response and how can you handle it better?
- What were your fears as a child, teenager, and adult? How did they affect your everyday life?
- How have you’ve grown from your trauma? What are ways in which you’ve made progress and healed from it?
- Think about ways in which you self-sabotaged due to a traumatic event you’ve experienced. Write a forgiveness letter to yourself for the way(s) you harmed yourself.
- Are there any parts of yourself that you’ve had to hide in adulthood? Why did you (or do you continue) to conceal them?
- Do you still feel anger or resentment toward the event or person that caused your trauma? Elaborate on your emotions.
- Write about ways in which you overcame an emotionally troubling event.
- What triggers your trauma(s)? What negative emotions do these triggers make you experience?
- Write a letter to your parents (you don’t need to send it)
I hope that you found these 11 expressive writing journal prompts for healing valuable and that they will help you to set yourself free from your past ♡
Wishing you a wonderful day and remember, you are, have always been and will always be, enough.