Writing Away the Demons: Stories of Creative Coping through Transformative Writing

"Dr. Sherry Reiter, one of the pioneers in poetry therapy, is a uniquely gifted writer, practitioner, and educator. Her writing speaks to the heart in a sensitive yet disciplined manner and is compelling because it draws from real life professional experience. In essence, Dr. Reiter's artistic approach to writing is research of the highest order, filling a significant gap in the professional literature."—Nicholas Mazza, Editor of The Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education" "In these remarkable stories, we bear witness to the transformation of pain into power. Sherry Reiter makes an undeniable case for writing as a way through human suffering, with case studies that are nearly archetypal. . . . A vital and necessary contribution to the literature of therapeutic writing." —Kathleen Adams, author, Journal to the Self and The Way of the Journal "There is abundant scientific evidence that 'expressive writing' is a profound way to affect health and well-being. Writing Away the Demons: Stories of Creative Coping Through Transformative Writing is a stellar example of 'everyday' people discovering this truth first-hand. Along with this, Dr. Reiter is keenly sensitive to the way sharing our stories reveal soul and the remarkable resilience of human beings." —John Fox, author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-making President, The Institute for Poetic Medicine "Transformative Writing—as evidenced by the diversity of writers who contribute to this ground-breaking collection—comes from specific experiences, insights, stories and metaphors, and through those specifics, illuminates what's enduring, what's life-giving, what makes us human. Each writer in this book holds up a lantern of transformative writing to show us not just the way through the dark, but how meeting the darkness with curiosity and compassion makes life shimmer with meaning." —Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, founder and coordinator of Transformative Language Arts (TLA) at Goddard College