A New ‘Poetry Therapy’ Workbook Can Help Ease Stress & Anxiety In The Time Of Covid-19
A New ‘Poetry Therapy’ Workbook Can Help Ease Stress & Anxiety In The Time Of Covid-19.
- (1888PressRelease) January 29, 2021 - We are living in a time and in a world that was unthinkable at the start of 2020. Everyone is searching for ways to deal with this collective trauma and grief, but there’s no single form of therapy that’s fit for all. What if it was possible to unlock your pain, feel it, then release it through writing?
A study conducted by Syracuse University suggests that writing about emotions and stress can boost mental health and even immune system function. ShiftPoetry™ is a unique, original bibliotherapy program that allows one to write freely specifically to identify feelings, accept them, and then “let them go.”
In May of 2020, producer, writing coach, and holistic life counselor, Barbara Ligeti and lawyer and life coach, Howard Kern released their first book, SHIFTPOETRY™ IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: An Anthology of Healing Poems and a Workbook to Help You to Write Yourself Well. The 160-page book features a collection of 75 poems written by a diverse group of 26 ShiftPoetry authors in a series of workshops focusing on the Pandemic, accompanied by the 28 prompts that inspired them. With blank pages for the reader to write their own poems based on the prompts, it also serves as a workbook. The poems represent an ongoing exercise in self-reflection, self-expression, and self-healing particularly suited to these difficult times. ShiftPoetry offers two free online workshops with the purchase of the book.
ShiftPoetry is a growing platform and has had successful in-person workshops all around the world, but during the time of COVID-19, their online workshops and new workbook have built a blossoming global community of participants who continue to tap into their own thoughts and feelings to release stress and anxiety.
The ShiftPoetry system is based on co-creator Howard Kern’s own experience in “writing himself well and happy”, as he dealt with severe personal loss, as well his own second cancer diagnosis.
Since its start in 2018, the ShiftPoetry process has helped many people to heal, make positive life changes, and heart-based decisions that have had a great personal impact. Online workshops begin with a meditation led by Ligeti to create a safe, loving and supportive space to pursue the work - "to settle in and settle down". Each prompt is generated and delivered by Kern to inform a ten-minute interval of "sprint writing". The workshops usually consist of 4 or 5 prompts. After writing, each participant reads their work aloud to the group. Because Kern's prompts are designed to open the heart and leave the ego behind, much of what is written can be intimate and powerful. ShiftPoetry is not a traditional "writer's workshop". It's all about healing. There are no critiques of the writing itself and no comments about the content. The group thanks each writer for sharing, then continues on to the next prompt. The writer always has the opportunity to polish or rework their material after the workshop. The poems included in ShiftPoetry in the Time of Covid-19 are diverse examples of the value of this innovative process.
To learn more about ShiftPoetry’s workshops and workbook, visit shiftpoetry.com, and follow on Facebook.
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