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The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing: Writing Myself
Book/media reviews
examine how services can help to include rather than exclude. The question that she does not ask, but which this book raises for me, is whether there are prospects for joined-up thinking between the various professionals, parents and children involved in what can be fragmented care of disabled children? Peter Callery, RSCN, PhD University of Manchester, UK DOI:10.1054/nedt.1999.0402, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing: Writing Myself Gillie Bolton Jessica Kingsley Publishers,, London 1999 248 pages, price: £15.95 Creative writing may seem at first glance to be a long way from nurse education, but this would be a mistaken judgement. Gillie Bolton is a published poet who has worked with a range of those involved with health care (clients, students and experienced practitioners) to develop their skills in writing for themselves. Creative writing offers a process of selfexploration which is under the control of the writer and which promotes self-healing. Her book offers ideas and inspiration whichever hat you choose to wear. All of us have sore places in our personal and professional lives
© 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd
which are easy to ignore much of the time, but which can pop up unexpectedly and cause trouble. Nurse educators may need to revisit difficult times in their own career, and creative writing offers an easily available and confidential way to do this. Those wishing to find new ways of encouraging students to write diaries which are reflective in reality as well as in name will find new approaches in this book. Educators may also be stimulated to consider the ethics of the assessment of reflective diaries by comparison with the standards of a different discipline. Finally, there are specific areas of health care in which creative writing can be of particular help to clients: palliative care, care of the elderly, and mental health are three which feature in this book. Gillie Bolton emphasizes that therapeutic writing cannot take people further than they wish to go, unlike therapuetic talk, which can sometimes result in both client and nurse getting out of their depth. Nurses who use this tool to help their patients heal themselves should, therefore, be careful how they discuss what has been written. Above all, those who encourage others to write creatively should first try it. So buy this book; but be warned, it can be addictive! Writing this review has turned out to be remarkably difficult and not because I do not like the book, but because it makes me want to write something elseÉ Elizabeth R. Perkins MA, PhD, Cert Ed. Nottingham, UK
DOI:10.1054/nedt.1999.0403, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
Nurse Education Today (2000) 20, 171–173 173
examine how services can help to include rather than exclude. The question that she does not ask, but which this book raises for me, is whether there are prospects for joined-up thinking between the various professionals, parents and children involved in what can be fragmented care of disabled children? Peter Callery, RSCN, PhD University of Manchester, UK DOI:10.1054/nedt.1999.0402, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing: Writing Myself Gillie Bolton Jessica Kingsley Publishers,, London 1999 248 pages, price: £15.95 Creative writing may seem at first glance to be a long way from nurse education, but this would be a mistaken judgement. Gillie Bolton is a published poet who has worked with a range of those involved with health care (clients, students and experienced practitioners) to develop their skills in writing for themselves. Creative writing offers a process of selfexploration which is under the control of the writer and which promotes self-healing. Her book offers ideas and inspiration whichever hat you choose to wear. All of us have sore places in our personal and professional lives
© 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd
which are easy to ignore much of the time, but which can pop up unexpectedly and cause trouble. Nurse educators may need to revisit difficult times in their own career, and creative writing offers an easily available and confidential way to do this. Those wishing to find new ways of encouraging students to write diaries which are reflective in reality as well as in name will find new approaches in this book. Educators may also be stimulated to consider the ethics of the assessment of reflective diaries by comparison with the standards of a different discipline. Finally, there are specific areas of health care in which creative writing can be of particular help to clients: palliative care, care of the elderly, and mental health are three which feature in this book. Gillie Bolton emphasizes that therapeutic writing cannot take people further than they wish to go, unlike therapuetic talk, which can sometimes result in both client and nurse getting out of their depth. Nurses who use this tool to help their patients heal themselves should, therefore, be careful how they discuss what has been written. Above all, those who encourage others to write creatively should first try it. So buy this book; but be warned, it can be addictive! Writing this review has turned out to be remarkably difficult and not because I do not like the book, but because it makes me want to write something elseÉ Elizabeth R. Perkins MA, PhD, Cert Ed. Nottingham, UK
DOI:10.1054/nedt.1999.0403, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
Nurse Education Today (2000) 20, 171–173 173