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Using Therapeutic Skills To Write Well
by Dr. Cindy Shearer
Note: This piece was written for The San Francisco
Psychologist (February 1999), newsletter of the San Francisco
Psychological Association, a Chapter of the California Psychological Association).
You write for many reasons. But when you aren't sure how to start,
develop or complete your writing project, you can draw on and work with
skills you already have. In this piece, I'll show you how using your
skills as a psychologist can help your write more proficiently and
productively. For more than 18 years, I've worked as a writer, consultant,
coach and teacher, advising psychologists and other professionals on their
writing.
Use Skills You
Already Have
Psychologists have many
skills that transfer easily and well to the writing process. Empathy,
questions, active listening, modeling, role playing, analyzing, mirroring
back and interpreting are just a few. Bringing skills like these to your
writing can enhance it and will allow you to engage your readers more
successfully. Effective writing is constructed like effective therapy. In
therapy--and in creating writing projects--respecting process, developing
skills and achieving concrete results need to work in relationship with
and along side each other. In the examples that follow, we'll look at
applying skills you already have to stages of writing. Then we'll look at
ways you can write more easily, especially if you avoid writing or find it
hard to do.
Starting Your Writing Project
- A psychologist wants to
prepare a set of handouts she can give to clients on subjects (such as
anxiety and depression) that come up frequently in therapy. She wants to
communicate, simply and succinctly, what she knows and believes--not just
rely on articles from others. She asks me: How do I get started?
Just as she asks questions with clients, I
suggested she question herself.
For example, what do you always tell clients about ____ ?
How do you
talk to clients about _____?
What do they often find confusing?
How have you effectively conveyed what you know during therapy
sessions?
Paying attention to what you say informally allows
you to make use of information you already have. Recording how you speak
allows you to bring your "voice" to your writing. You can interview
yourself and record your responses or ask someone to interview you.
Developing Your Writing Project
- Another psychologist wants to get out of her
chair and into the community by offering workshops that combine her
skills in teaching movement and expressive arts and her knowledge of
depth psychology. As we look over drafts of publicity materials she's
prepared, she asks: How do I promote myself and still communicate to
readers that I care about them? She's adept at creating models with
clients, so we created a model marketing piece which she can use now and
will also be a template for future materials. You can do the same.
Completing Your Writing Project
Resisting Writing
In therapy, resistance tells you what your clients
are afraid of and strategies they use to cope with fear. Understanding
resistance‹both in therapy and writing‹can tell us how to work with fear.
Years ago, I'd want to write, but would clean instead. Although I felt
guilty about not writing, I learned to go with my resistance. I realized
that while my hands were scrubbing sinks or polishing furniture, my mind
was free to start writing. Inevitably when I sat down to work,
I had plenty to write.
Many times we avoid writing because we're not sure
we know how to do it. Sometimes we feel this way because we carry
false notions about what writing really is. Recently, a psychologist told
me writing is not, as he thought, about presenting ideas well, but about
speaking genuinely to readers and being understood. Discovering and developing
what works for you will give you the confidence you need to write more
easily and more eloquently.
Developing a
Workable Writing Process
One way to develop your writing
process is to imitate the style, structure or perspective of writing you
like. Imitating another's writing is like role playing. It
allows you to learn by doing and to add skills and strategies to
your writing repertoire.
Another way is to reject perfectionism. Just as
good therapy is "good enough," so is good writing. I say to clients a
piece of writing is never done, just finished. Accepting that you will do your best within
the time you have allows you to set realistic and workable writing
goals.
Working with readers is another important way you
can develop your writing process. First, you can visualize readers and
talk to them when you write. Just as you talk with clients, talking to
readers will allow you to speak with purpose, authenticity and plan. If
you like to talk and don't like to write, dictate your writing. Transcribe your text or just
listen to your dictation. Then jot down what seems important and use it to
develop your writing.
Second, seek out a community of readers: a writing
group, a good friend, a colleague (or two). Readers can tell you when you
communicate well and when you confuse them, when you say enough and when
they need to know more. Gaps or inaccuracies in how others understand your
work can let you know ways in which you need to speak differently to readers.
Writer's Block
Sometimes
resistance to writing is deep and results in writer's block. Just as
cognitive and behavioral strategies can be effective in therapy,
they can sometimes help with writer's block. But deep resistance can be
tied to important psychological issues involving self-esteem, panic,
depression and trauma. A skilled
therapist can sometimes help.
Effective
Psychotherapy and Effective Writing
Effective psychotherapy and effective writing have
much in common. Both are based on creating a space in which one may go
deep to discover what one cares about and understands as true. Both pull
for authentic expression of the self and for comprehensible communication
to another--or many others. Both work to balance flame and structure.
Flame gives our work honesty, passion and interest. Structure gives us
foundation and framing and helps us be understood.
You developed your skills as a therapist over many
years through education, training and practice. You've brought intention,
commitment and desire to being good at your work. The same is true of
writing. Practicing your skills, getting support, and being committed will
help you write well and allow you to become the writer you want to be.
Dr. Cindy Shearer is a writing consultant and
coach. She works often with psychologists and is a core faculty member at
the California Institute of Integral Studies. You can reach her at
415-492-8410.
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