I’m Stepping Into The Arena — Publishing my Creative Disclosures

To write expressively is to be vulnerable. You are making a choice. You choose to make a creative disclosure to the page. No one has to see that ink on the page but one singular person. You. By taking up the pen and scribbling your trauma and truth on the page, you are being vulnerable because you are witnessing the proclamation of your experiences and suffering. You are stepping into the arena.

Brene Brown talks about the Arena as a place where you choose to be brave and to be vulnerable (that is a basic summary of her amazing work). Being vulnerable in the arena can mean different things to different people. For me as a counsellor and a writer (of all sorts), it is picking up the fountain pen and wetting my journal’s pages with prose and poetry that process my experiences and suffering. It means making creative disclosures.

I’ve written previously and will continue to about expressive writing. It is my passion. I know its power both artistically and therapeutically. It is a way for people who don’t have access to services and support (because no one fancies investing in it properly) to process their lives without fear of judgement. It is a way for them to include creativity in their lives and to experience the healing it can offer.

I feel it requires something from me. I could suggest this to you every day for the rest of my life. But without stepping into that arena myself. Without embracing vulnerability, I would feel hollow. Instead, I take inspiration from those who came before me in the field of counselling and trauma. Carolyn Spring. Irvin Yalom. Carl Rogers and many others. Each of them has written about their experiences as helpers and as clients who have worked on themselves. To help others to learn from their experiences, they have taken up the pen and stepped into the arena.

I’ve decided to publish some of my creative work. Some of it will come through the prism of expressive writing and others will have come out of my experimentation with the craft of writing. I love both the therapeutic benefits of writing and the artistic craft of it. I want to show that I practice what I preach. If I’m going to suggest you be vulnerable with creative disclosure, then I will too. As Brene Brown says, “Courage is contagious.”

Keep an eye out for poetry from past and present. And remember that all you need to start with expressive writing is a pen, paper and a smidge of courage.