R4. The Use of Emotionally Expressive and Narrative Writing to Facilitate Coping and Adaptation after Stroke
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Abstract
This study assesses how writing in different ways about the experience of recovery can help physical and psychological health and activity after stroke. Expressive, narrative writing has not been tested with stroke survivors as a means of facilitating adaptation. Phase I of this project is a randomized controlled study of the efficacy of expressive writing to deal with the trauma associated with stroke recovery. Seventy-six subjects, six months or more post stroke, will be randomly assigned to write about different topics associated with stroke recovery over a four session period with the help of a Peer Mentor and modifications to accommodate impairments. Data will be collected at baseline, post intervention, and four months to assess the effect of writing on physical and psychological health and activity. Phase II is a quasi-experimental, within subjects design with a subsample from Phase I assessing the use of writing groups to produce narratives of stroke recovery for publication.
Personal Narratives
Below you will find essays from participants in our research project on expressive and narrative writing. These essays are narratives about personal experiences in their stroke recovery. Each is available as a PDF.
Note: You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these documents. If you do not already have Adobe Acrobat installed, download it for free.
| A Change in My Life |
PDF |
| Overcoming by Faith |
PDF |
| Losses and Gains |
PDF |
| If I Knew Then What I Know Now |
PDF |
| A Family Recovers |
PDF |
| The Arrival of a Stroke: From Confusion to Self Acceptance |
PDF |
| There's Rehab and Then There's REHAB! |
PDF |
| A Stroke of Bad Luck: My Experience of Recovery |
PDF |
| Restoring a Sense of Self |
PDF |
| Life After Stroke: Never Stop Fighting |
PDF |
| The Open Road |
PDF |
| Reflections on My Stroke and How It Has Changed Me |
PDF |
| My Experience of Recovery |
PDF |
| Driving - My Gnawing Anguish |
PDF |
| The Nightmare You Can Wake Up From |
PDF |
| The Surprise Healing |
PDF |
| My Journey to Survive |
PDF |
| I Thought of It As A Challenge |
PDF |
| My Aphasia |
PDF |
| My Life Is Not My Fault, But It Is My Responsibility |
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| My Story |
PDF |
| Removing Obstacles |
PDF |
| A Chapter in My Road to Recovery |
PDF |
| From Stroke Victim to Stroke Survivor to Health Care Reform Advocate |
PDF |
| God, My Marathon Partner |
PDF |
| Victory in What Seems Like Defeat |
PDF |
| Visually Unimpaired |
PDF |