Empirical research regarding the therapeutic value of creative artistic expression in dealing with symptoms from traumatic events is lacking. James Pennebaker has studied the efficacy of written expression regarding traumatic events in promoting mental well-being. Individuals who have difficulties with cognitive processing (e.g., learning disorders) often lack the faculties necessary to form a cohesive written narrative. There are also individuals who lack a strong enough command of written language to engage in a written disclosure task, such as children and those who are illiterate or undereducated. These populations are unlikely to benefit from written disclosure simply because they lack the capacity to write at such a sophisticated level. Disclosure of trauma by such individuals might be better accomplished symbolically through a creative artistic task rather than through written or verbal channels. Furthermore, because the task is symbolic in nature, it may be a safer and more comfortable means of disclosing trauma for individuals who are reluctant to divulge such information out of fear or shame surrounding the event. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the healing aspects of creativity; specifically the usefulness of creating a mandala. It was theorized that mandala drawing may provide the cognitive integration and organization to complex emotional experiences that yield a sense of personal meaning as well as serving as a mechanism of therapeutic exposure, as does the written disclosure task. By reviewing research in this field and attempting to duplicate previous research, this study used undergraduate college students as participants who met the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The benefits were measured in terms of changes in PTSD symptom severity, depression, anxiety, spiritual meaning, affect, and the frequency of occurrence of physical symptoms and illness. Contrary to expectation, the current study failed to replicate previous results revealing statistically significant outcome differences for the mandala group. In fact, the finding was reversed in that the control group (drawing three objects or a kind of art therapy) showed a significant drop in PTSD symptoms at one-month follow up. Explanations for these differences are explored and future avenues of research outlined.

Empirical research regarding the therapeutic value of creative artistic expression in dealing with symptoms from traumatic events is lacking. James Pennebaker has studied the efficacy of written expression regarding traumatic events in promoting mental well-being. Individuals who have difficulties with cognitive processing (e.g., learning disorders) often lack the faculties necessary to form a cohesive written narrative. There are also individuals who lack a strong enough command of written language to engage in a written disclosure task, such as children and those who are illiterate or undereducated. These populations are unlikely to benefit from written disclosure simply because they lack the capacity to write at such a sophisticated level. Disclosure of trauma by such individuals might be better accomplished symbolically through a creative artistic task rather than through written or verbal channels. Furthermore, because the task is symbolic in nature, it may be a safer and more comfortable means of disclosing trauma for individuals who are reluctant to divulge such information out of fear or shame surrounding the event. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the healing aspects of creativity; specifically the usefulness of creating a mandala. It was theorized that mandala drawing may provide the cognitive integration and organization to complex emotional experiences that yield a sense of personal meaning as well as serving as a mechanism of therapeutic exposure, as does the written disclosure task. By reviewing research in this field and attempting to duplicate previous research, this study used undergraduate college students as participants who met the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The benefits were measured in terms of changes in PTSD symptom severity, depression, anxiety, spiritual meaning, affect, and the frequency of occurrence of physical symptoms and illness. Contrary to expectation, the current study failed to replicate previous results revealing statistically significant outcome differences for the mandala group. In fact, the finding was reversed in that the control group (drawing three objects or a kind of art therapy) showed a significant drop in PTSD symptoms at one-month follow up. Explanations for these differences are explored and future avenues of research outlined.

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The aim of the current study was to test the effectiveness of the written disclosure paradigm on psychological health, cognitive processing, dispositional and social factors and to improve the paradigm on the basis of the underlying mechanisms responsible for its benefits. Participants consisting of 73 Middle East Technical University students were randomly assigned to one of three groups to write during 30-min sessions on 3 consecutive days: (1) Guided Disclosure Group (GDG) / (2) Standard Disclosure Group (SDG) / (3) Control Group (CG). GDG wrote about their most upsetting life events according to exposure, cognitive reappraisal, and benefit-finding instructions, respectively. SDG wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings related to their most upsetting life events. CG described familiar environments without including any emotion or opinion. All participants completed measures of psychological health (i.e., general psychological distress symptoms), cognitive processing (i.e., intrusive thoughts, avoidance, and appraisal of the event), dispositional (i.e., trait anxiety, alexithymia, coping styles) and social factors (i.e., perceived social support, and severity of negative life events) prior to the first writing session, following the third writing session, and a 1-month follow-up. It was expected that GDG would report more improvements in outcome measures, relative to SDG. In turn, SDG was expected to display greater improvements, relative to CG. All groups reported similar improvements in psychological distress symptoms, cognitive processing and alexithymia. The findings were discussed in terms of relevant literature.

A series of four studies examined the emotional climate of elite sport, and tested the utility of an emotional disclosure intervention during sport injury rehabilitation. Overall, results from the investigations indicated that athletes' usual coping mechanism during injury rehabilitation was to inhibit and suppress felt emotions, while displaying mock emotions that were considered acceptable within their sport climate. Pennebaker's (1989) written disclosure paradigm was shown to address athletes' emotionally inhibitive coping style and encourage psychological and physical well-being. It was found to be a viable alternative to psychotherapy within the sport injury context. Athletes showed improvements in stress and mood disturbance, and fewer grief responses towards their injury. Affective and cognitive linguistic markers also showed changes during the 3-day intervention period, leading to the informed assumption that there was a likely association between changes in athletes' psychological responses to injury post-intervention and changes among the linguistic markers of interest. Results were discussed in the context of the broader sport psychology of injury research and limitations of the present investigations were discussed. Recommendations were made for future research into intervention research targeting the psychological experience of long-term injury.