Anastasia Philippopoulos
MIXED NUTS: Therapeutic Writing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-L-4bMgCwg3w0votQ1ikwLMtP17QKxfazgJ_7c0KpvY/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-L-4bMgCwg3w0votQ1ikwLMtP17QKxfazgJ_7c0KpvY/edit?usp=sharing
I love the idea of you using a podcast, especially a podcast that you already make. If you’re gonna do something, might as well get a grade for it haha. One of the most relatable things in the whole project was turning your nose up at the price of therapeutic journals. Forty dollars!?? Too much, I agree. I’ve been keeping a daily journal on and off since nearly 2014. As a new year’s resolution, I’ve been keeping a video diary. Every day I’ll make a record of my day, usually with me just sitting in front of my camera and talking about what I did that day and how I’m feeling. Then I would upload them all to a private youtube account to backup and chronicalize my entries. I’ve experimented with SO many forms of journaling over the many years I’ve been doing it. I’ve found that when I’m limited to a physical journal, I skip days and become generally inconsistent in keeping up the habit. I’ve tried keeping google doc, so I can type on my phone whenever I remember to do it, regardless of where I am. Again, I found myself frustrated with the limiting factor this time being how fast I could type. I think video diaries are the best for me because it allows me the freedom of being able to record in any quiet place I found and upload it all from my phone. The practice has greatly benefited my life. The entries I’ve made and the journals I’ve filled are some of the most sentimentally meaningful things I own
I would maybe cut down on the length of the links, where sometimes, especially near the middle of the transcript, one link would take up the entirety of the paragraph. Limiting the links to maybe one or two key words or phrases would make the readability of these paragraphs a little bit better.
Your project was engaging and fun to read through. I learned a lot about therapeutic writing and was interested to read about the different types of therapeutic writing, such as interactive journaling, expressive writing, and bibliotherapy.
I applaud you for opening up about your mental health struggles, as well, and explaining how therapeutic writing has helped you. This discussion piqued my interest in your topic and convinced me of the importance and benefits of therapeutic writing.
I also found how jammed full of useful information your script was to be impressive. Your explanation of rumination, cognitive restructuring, and of various research articles, such as the article from Stice et al. showcasing the benefits of expressive writing and independent journaling on depressive symptoms, appeals to the reader’s sense of logic. This pairs nicely with the personal anecdote you told earlier in the episode.
I would have been interested to learn more about different digital therapeutic writing tools and if therapeutic writing can exist in digital spaces like social media platforms. Does sharing and expressive writing on social media help or hinder people’s mental health? Does therapeutic writing have to be a solo endeavor? I would have liked to see more focus on the digital realm.
I personally have never been one to take an interest in podcasts, my friends and family always tell me I should give it a try, but I always thought I would get distracted without visuals to keep my interest. However, after reading through your script, I am very interested in trying. Even though there were pages of writing, I never found myself getting distracted, but instead interested in finding out more. I liked seeing the pauses where Harry would normally respond, think about the music you would play in between, or the cute jokes made throughout the serious information being discussed. Perhaps the topic also played a large role in my interest level, as I too turn to journaling in times of difficulty.
Thank you for opening up with your journey of therapy and finding methods that work for you, I felt as though this made you more credible as an author since you were able to share a personal perspective. I liked how instead of stating that writing was the best method of therapy, on its own, you discussed how it should be used it correlation to other methods. As that helps the reader understand the true benefits and different options in bettering their mental health. It was great seeing you find a topic that you were so passionate about and were able to use an alternative format that you are already accustomed to. This combination made for a very well-done project.
A podcast transcript was a very interesting and engaging way to introduce your topic! I found your topic to be actually very helpful, especially since you mentioned some of the mental struggles you’ve experienced yourself. I myself have anxiety and many times, I find myself overthinking a lot of the most minor things. As a result, I would get in my own head and feel as if the weight of the whole world is on my shoulders. After reading about the different types of therapeutic journaling, I would certainly like to try them at some point, specifically interactive journaling. Based on the definition you provided, it seems like a good balance between self-help material, guided prompts, and spaces that give you the freedom to express your thoughts.
Furthermore, I certainly think picking to journal online or in a notebook is an important choice that could make one’s experience in journaling more effective. For instance, while I may be a college student that always has my laptop in my backpack, I also find myself wanting to spend time away from the screen and dive into my own thoughts on a physical book that doesn’t remind me of school work. On the other hand, I would also understand that I could switch my journal medium at any time since maybe writing on a computer could be more convenient for me.
Overall, I thought your piece was very informative and convincing, especially to those who may be seeking to engage in therapeutic writing. However, I do think that while hyperlinks are a great way to help readers navigate through your writing, I feel as if maybe you could’ve simply hyperlinked one keyword rather than a whole paragraph as I often found the blue underlined text to be a bit distracting.
A podcast transcript was a very interesting and engaging way to introduce your topic! I found your topic to be actually very helpful, especially since you mentioned some of the mental struggles you’ve experienced yourself. I myself have anxiety and many times, I find myself overthinking a lot of the most minor things. As a result, I would get in my own head and feel as if the weight of the whole world is on my shoulders. After reading about the different types of therapeutic journaling, I would certainly like to try them at some point, specifically interactive journaling. Based on the definition you provided, it seems like a good balance between self-help material, guided prompts, and spaces that give you the freedom to express your thoughts.
Furthermore, I certainly think picking to journal online or in a notebook is an important choice that could make one’s experience in journaling more effective. For instance, while I may be a college student that always has my laptop in my backpack, I also find myself wanting to spend time away from the screen and dive into my own thoughts on a physical book that doesn’t remind me of school work. On the other hand, I would also understand that I could switch my journal medium at any time since maybe writing on a computer could be more convenient for me.
Overall, I thought your piece was very informative and convincing, especially to those who may be seeking to engage in therapeutic writing. However, I do think that while hyperlinks are a great way to help readers navigate through your writing, I feel as if maybe you could’ve simply hyperlinked one keyword rather than a whole paragraph as I often found the blue underlined text to be a bit distracting.
Creating a podcast is an innovative way to talk about your topic. I prefer listening to audiobooks while reading along and this format reminded me of just that. I applaud you for speaking about your personal struggles of mental health. It is shocking that 120 million people show signs of anxiety or depression. Recently, I have experienced several anxiety attacks due to juggling school, work, grad school apps, and providing for my family. I never really sought help because I believed that it was something I had to get over alone. After reading about different therapeutic writing forms, I would like to give journaling a shot.
Overall, your podcast was really informative and gave a lot of insight to therapeutic writing. However, I was unsure if the script came with any audio. If there is audio, I couldn’t find it. I like how you included hyperlinks in your text as well. I just wish there was a reference page at the end. Having an additional reference page with all of the hyperlinks would make it much easier to navigate.
Hello Anastasia,
I think it’s pretty cool that you even have a podcast to begin with as this has always been an interest of mine, that is, starting one up. It’s a refreshing take on approaching this project as it gets away from traditional writing. As far as the topic goes, I loved it. I’ve done many expressive writing sessions to help work through the rougher periods of my life and I feel that everyone should do it at some point or another. So it’s cool to watch you talk about the way that you did and hopefully it opens the door for some who may be looking to work through their personal stuff on their own. Julia Camerons book, The Artist’s Way, is a great book about expressive writing, and http://www.erickgodsey.com has a great course on expressive writing––although kind of expensive. Anyways, loved your project and the topic.
First off, thank you for taking the time to make a transcript. I can see how much work goes into something like that. For my project, I made a script/transcript of my video, and I realized how much work it was. However, I wasn’t sure if I just couldn’t find the podcast. Nonetheless, the content is great. I used to just write in a journal during the pandemic because it helped me feel more organized and structured, which, in a way, was therapeutic for me. I remember hearing the anxiety and depression percentage stat on the radio one day. I thought it was crazy and would always tell people during my contact tracing job.
I can see the struggles of using both an app or a physical journal when it comes to deciding the format or mode of your therapeutic writing. I personally would like to stay analog, but unfortunately it seems too expensive.
This project was super informative and interesting. Thank you for sharing. I took a few psychology classes here, and wish I took more now. This actually inspired me to buy a new journal. I chose to go with a physical one, because that is my preference! Thank you!
Hi Anastasia,
The format of a podcast to present your project was very interesting and it helped me stay engaged throughout the text. I especially liked how you wrote it in such a way that you were able to present all the necessary information by using a conversation between two people and even used music in between topics as a sort of break. I also liked how you opened up about your own experiences as it allowed me to connect with the text and after reading your project, it has prompted me to take a step towards creating a journal myself to write out my thoughts.
I also liked how you included links to the articles that you referenced and greatly explained what the article was talking about so it was not even necessary to go to the article in order to fully understand what the article was talking about and how it tied back to what you were talking about. I especially liked the part where you made Harry ask how it was relevant to students and you included the response since it may not be clear initially how your topic relates to us and you made it clear that it definitely relates to us since students have a large rate of anxiety and depression.
Therapeutic writing was a cool way of combining the psych portion of your college studies with writing. Your podcast makes a strong case to start a therapeutic journal, no matter your mental health. I have kept journals before, but I have never really considered them to be ‘therapeutic.’ Rather, I considered them to be more of a recycling bin for my thoughts. Every now and then I’ll revisit something that I wrote in the past and reflect on my state of mind at the time. However, I never considered keeping a journal in the way that you describe in your project. To me, therapeutic journaling seems to be a great way of synthesizing/moderating your thoughts in the moment. In many ways, therapeutic journaling sounds like the writing equivalent of meditation. Correct me if I’m wrong about any of these thoughts, but this is what I took away from your project.
I also like how your discussion of therapeutic writing connected to the class. Is writing with a digital tool less engaging than writing on paper? According to your research, this really depends on the person. I would agree with your initial hypothesis that writing on paper is probably more effective at getting someone to connect with the subject material. I found it surprising to hear the results that you found. Both digital and physical writing were more effective at reducing anxiety symptoms over depressive symptoms. It would be cool to conduct further research into why this is the case.
In terms of the format, I love how you presented your ideas in the form of a podcast. I would love to hear the full version (including Harry’s comments 🙂 ) when it airs! I also thought it was interesting how your hyperlinks were often multiple sentences, even a full paragraph long. While I haven’t really seen this method of hyperlinking too often, I like it. It actually makes your in-text citations much clearer than the traditional method. To see exactly what information you were borrowing throughout the podcast, all you have to do is look at the hyperlinked text. The blue color of hyperlink made your citations stand out much more, and I appreciated this.
I found this topic very relevant because a lot of college students feel stressed, especially after transitioning back to in-person classes. This transition probably impacts students struggling with mental health issues even more, making some of the things discussed in the podcast very important for listeners to know and understand. I really like the app idea because I know a lot of college students don’t even carry paper with them everywhere they go, they usually just have their laptop and charger. So, an app may be more convenient than an actual journal. However, I also agree that writing itself makes you connect more with what you’re writing due to the movement and the speed of it. I think maybe a combination of an app and a journal might work out. So, if a student is out and doesn’t have the time to write in their journal, they can use the app. Then, if they are in their room or at home and have more time, they can use a journal.
I liked the font used in your project, it gave a script feel to it. I could picture the podcast in my head. However, I think you could have had the hyperlinks take up a keyword or a few words instead of a sentence or couple of sentences. It made it really difficult to read and I had to reread it multiple times to understand it. Comparatively, the other parts that were not hyperlinked were very easy to read and understand.
This project was definitely unique in how genuine it is, being that is goes far outside this class. It also has much more of a personal feel than the other projects because of the inherent media format, which is particularly helpful when discussing a topic that can make some people’s pits sweat or feet fidget. I was actually quite surprised at the “responds to this”, because in my (one) experience writing a podcast, I never thought to use this as a way to give the audience more of a realistic and in-the-moment feel. It also lets them feel as though they are the ones responding in their head and in the podcast. In addition to that, I liked how you showed your thought process and research progress throughout the podcast, letting the audience explore those findings in the order you found them out for yourself. You also give a very open view of yourself, your views, your experiences, and what you’ve learned thus far, which not only makes your message genuine, but impactful.
Besides the format, this is a topic I’ve grown quite passionate about, particularly because I want to enter the psychiatric field and constantly question the hypocrisy within it. It’s truly a lonely feeling to think about how many doctors prescribe to all those in line and call it a day. You mentioned how many people do not acknowledge their own issues with their mental health, or the fact that they should probably seek help— yet, to make matters worse, even those that do reach out are sometimes met with rejection from their families or overdose from their doctors. I really appreciate hearing a method like this that does not simply suggest getting medication or seeing a doctor, but rather one that also attempts to use a more manipulation-free method of mental health improvement. I do not deny that sometimes medication is definitely necessary (and am very happy to hear your therapist and psychiatrist have led to your improvement) but something like therapeutic writing may help someone that would have become a victim of big Pharma.
I am so impressed by your ability to write a script. I have only tried writing one once–and it was not pretty! The way you presented your research within the script was readable but I could also imagine it spoken, too. I appreciated that you wrote in and allowed for ample time to reflect on the topics you presented. How each topic bleeds into and relates to the next felt natural and easy-going. And your personal anecdote sets your tone as a trustworthy and educated friend.
Hi Anastasia,
I really like how you decided to do a podcast for your project! I have been listening to a bunch of them lately. When reading the transcript, I was able to hear your voice the entire time. It was interesting and able to keep me engaged throughout. I also like how you included many hyperlinks to your various sources. I only clicked on a few, but they seemed like they had a lot of great information.
I never really considered therapeutic writing before and how it helps people struggling with anxiety or depression, especially college students. As a student who knows that anxiety holds me back from a lot, maybe I can try it. I was glad to know that the benefits aren’t lost too much when switching to an online setting. This is especially great for college students who, like you said, might just carry around a laptop instead of a journal. Personally, I like to write things down by hand because I think it benefits me more, including when taking notes.
Overall, I really enjoyed your project!
Hi Anastasia,
It is so great to see your work in its chiseled and final form after we’ve been discussing it in our group for so long!! I definitely was looking forward to looking over your project and you certainly didn’t disappoint!!
In terms of format, I really appreciated how much thought you put into the most nuanced details, such as pausing or responding to an anticipated response from Harry. It felt like guided reading when I was going through your project because of the descriptive language that you used; it really helped me stay engaged and acted in place of having actual images throughout your work. One minor suggestion that I have is to make your project a bit more interactive, I would add in images and hyperlinks. Since you’ll be doing a verbal podcast, I think having images would not only make the script more digestible to the reader, but also act as guide for you when you do the podcast.
In terms of content, I loved how personal you made your project – it truly adds to the interactivity of your work and makes the information resonate on a personal level. You’ve inspired me to take up journaling, actually, after we discussed your project in our peer review group. Now that I’ve read about how you’ve personally dealt with ruminating thoughts, I am even more inclined to try it out in my own journal.
Great work!!
I just want to start off by saying that I absolutely love your poster. It’s hilarious, appealing, and absolutely adorable. I would have loved to hear your podcast though. Drop the link if you end up actually making this into a podcast episode!
One thing I really appreciated about your podcast was how you broke down a lot of psychology terms. I felt that it made the podcast a lot easier to follow for people who are not very familiar with many psychology terms and considering the stats of the general population, it is likely very applicable. I liked that your solution was very open-ended and you didn’t force upon a “one-size-fits-all” argument to address the issue at hand. I would love to see this idea come to life. I personally journal as well–finding it to be an excellent way to clear my thoughts and organize my priorities. As much as I would love to carry a notebook around as you do, it often becomes burdensome if I have nothing else to bring with me. Additionally, I think having such an app on my phone would help to lessen viewing a phone as entertainment and seeing it rather as a tool to provide value in my life.
Your project was very interesting because you had a format of a podcast. I myself was very really interested in podcasts. I thought it would be boring and not engaging to me because there are no visuals in a podcast. After reading your script, I think I’m going to try at least a few times. While reading your script, I found it to be very engaging and not boring at all. I didn’t get distracted at all and was focused on reading your script and the way you engaged with your conversation was the reason why. Your topic was also very interesting. You opened up about your journey of therapy and finding methods that work for you. I felt that the information you talked about was more credible and reliable because you shared your own experiences and the way you did things.