Hellum Rikke, Jensen Stine, Nielsen Anette
University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
Nordisk Alkohol Nark. 2017 Aug;34(4):299-313. doi: 10.1177/1455072517696507. Epub 2017 Sep 14.
If and how various ways of expressing oneself creatively might help heal and resolve mental problems is a question that has been discussed for decades. Creative writing is typically used as an add-on to traditional therapy rather than being an integrated part of the therapy. There is a lack of research into the effect of implementing creative writing as an add-on to therapy for alcohol dependence. The aim of this study was to introduce creative writing to chronic alcohol-dependent clients.
A creative writing course was held as a pilot study with six workshops each lasting two hours. Six clients recruited from a harm reduction unit in a Danish alcohol treatment centre and suffering from chronic alcohol-use disorder participated in the workshops. The workshops were led by two professional authors experienced in teaching creative writing. At the end we conducted three interviews: one with the clients, one with the therapist and one with the authors. The interviews were analysed with a focus on the clients' perspective.
In the analysis, we found that writing can give the clients a lower self-esteem, make them fear failure, and it can be too private. We also found that writing can increase the clients' self-confidence and unity in the group, give them new nuances of life, stimulate their brain, give zest for life, and improve relations between clients and care providers. Further, we identified a few points of importance to be added to the organization of the workshops.
We found that clients suffering from alcohol-use disorder participating in creative writing profited from increased self-confidence, a sense of unity, were better able to appreciate the nuances of life, experienced stimulating brain activity, had more zest for life, and that the intervention improved relations between clients and care providers.
各种创造性的自我表达形式是否以及如何有助于治愈和解决心理问题，这是一个已经讨论了数十年的问题。创造性写作通常被用作传统治疗的附加手段，而不是治疗的一个组成部分。对于将创造性写作作为酒精依赖治疗的附加手段的效果，缺乏相关研究。本研究的目的是将创造性写作引入慢性酒精依赖患者。
举办了一个创造性写作课程作为试点研究，共六个工作坊，每个工作坊持续两小时。从丹麦一家酒精治疗中心的减少伤害部门招募了六名患有慢性酒精使用障碍的患者参加这些工作坊。工作坊由两名有创造性写作教学经验的专业作家主持。最后，我们进行了三次访谈：一次与患者进行，一次与治疗师进行，一次与作家进行。访谈分析聚焦于患者的视角。
在分析中，我们发现写作可能会降低患者的自尊，使他们害怕失败，而且可能过于私密。我们还发现写作可以增强患者的自信心和团队凝聚力，赋予他们生活新的细微差别，刺激他们的大脑，给予生活热情，并改善患者与护理人员之间的关系。此外，我们确定了一些在工作坊组织中需要补充的要点。
我们发现，患有酒精使用障碍的患者参与创造性写作，能从增强的自信心、团队凝聚力中获益，更能欣赏生活的细微差别，体验到大脑活动得到刺激，对生活更有热情，而且这种干预改善了患者与护理人员之间的关系。
