“Veterans of recent and past conflicts are using words to bear witness, find their way through horrific memories, and to battle back emotional reactions and PTSD. While in the past there were few programs that encouraged returning military to use writing as part of recovery from war’s inner wounds, today the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Veterans’ Voices, and numerous websites provide both opportunities and examples for soldiers to tell their stories. Documentary film Operation Homecoming, recently nominated for several Emmies, has provided the springboard for a series of national writing workshops for military and their families at Walter Reed and other veterans hospitals across the US. In contrast to the Viet Nam war whose returning military often remained silent for 20 years or more before putting pen to paper, more and more veterans are courageously confronting their feelings, memories, and nightmares through poems, prose, autobiographies, and stories.”
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Words of War, Words of Peace: Writing as Therapy, Part I | Psychology Today
[A great artticle about art therapy and the importance of writing to overcome PTSD.]
2 years ago