Heal Your Self With Writing – Amazon VINE VOICE™ Review

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5.0 out of 5 stars

“Writing is the greatest therapy I know.” July 18, 2013
By Suza Francina VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback

I had the good fortune to take a journal writing workshop with the playwright and screenwriter Catherine Ann Jones. In the course of the four-day workshop, I filled several composition books with enthusiastic notes from her teachings and wild revelations prompted by her focused journal writing exercises.

I have many inspiring writing books but what makes this one stand out is that the author holds a graduate degree in Depth Psychology and Archetypal Mythology. She consciously incorporates her understanding of psychological processes into her writing exercises. In addition, she studied ancient Shamanic practices which are also reflected in her holistic approach to writing as a healing art.

Catherine Ann Jones makes the critical point that while psychological techniques may help us to uncover our deepest feelings and source of trauma and pain, they sometimes are not enough to lead us through the deeper journey of transformation. Heal Yourself with Writing offers a step-by-step process of self-understanding through focused journal writing. As a lifelong jourBuy Heal Your Self With Writingnal writer myself, I have learned how telling stories about our past can liberate us, and put the past where it belongs—behind us–but without repressing or denying it!

In the final chapter, “Looking Back, Growing Forward,” she writes: “Throughout this book, you have learned that it is possible to re-vision your life. You have embraced and integrated the opposites that live within us all, and experienced standing in the light while facing the dark. You have acquired new tools of dialoguing with the soul and other focused journaling techniques. You have traveled a shamanic journey and communicated with spirit and ancestral guides that will continue to walk by your side. You have transcended the archetype of your birth by exploring and expanding your own personal myth. Further, you have learned that trauma can be overcome with imagination by going beyond traditional psychology. And finally you have looked back and integrated the lessons of the past in order to grow forward.”

—Suza Francina, yoga teacher, author, Fishing on Facebook: A Writing Yoga Memoir and yoga books for people at midlife and older.

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