From destruction to creation, from silence to speech: Poetry therapy principles and practices for working with suicide grief

Survivors of suicide must contend not only with traumatic grief but also with shame, stigma, and silence. Poetry therapy is a powerful tool for healing in this population. The utilization of preexisting poems, along with the expressive writing of poems, letters, and journals, contributes to the desensitization of traumatic memories and helps the bereaved move beyond formless anguish toward a capacity for the verbal representation of psychological pain. Further, creative expression serves as a means for rejecting the implicit message of destructiveness that characterizes suicide. The author describes a variety of techniques that can be used as part of self-directed efforts at psychological repair (i.e., “auto-poetic healing”), as well as with individuals or groups in the context of professionally facilitated treatment.