Expressive Writing for Resilience in Adult Pediatric Oncology Survivors and Their Caregivers (2018-2019)

Even when childhood cancer is successfully treated, psychological effects can endure for decades. Parents and caregivers also report significant emotional distress.

Expressive writing offers a low-cost therapeutic intervention for former patients and caregivers. Guided by prompts, participants write about a traumatic or stressful event. Sustained expressive writing promotes healing from emotional upheavals, while helping resolve current challenges, cultivate resilience, and improve overall health and well-being.

This project team set out to determine whether a pilot expressive writing intervention can increase resilience for adult survivors of childhood cancer and their caregivers. Along the way, all students became certified as expressive writing instructors and completed portfolios documenting their work. Following completion of the study and data analysis, team leaders plan to expand the scope of the research into the Durham community.

Timing

Fall 2018 – Fall 2019

Team Outputs

Elizabeth Bechard, John Evans, Eunji Cho, Yufen Lin, Arthi Kozhumam, Jill Jones, Sydney Grob, Oliver Glass. 2021. "Feasibility, acceptability, and potential effectiveness of an online expressive writing intervention for COVID-19 resilience." Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice.

Jill K. Jones, John F. Evans, Raymond C. Barfield. 2021. "The Utility of Verbal Therapy for Pediatric Cancer Patients and Survivors: Expressive Writing, Video Narratives, and Bibliotherapy Exercises." Frontiers in Pediatrics 9:579003.

Expressive Writing for Resilience: Writing to Heal (poster by Jill Jones, Dahlia Chacon, Arthi Kozhumam, Nicoly Santos, Jai Eun Huh, Katie Xu, Anna Savelyeva, Lucy Zheng, John Evans, Oliver Glass, Ray Barfield, Elizabeth Matteson Bechard, presented at Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 17, 2019)

Oliver Glass, Mark Dreusicke, John Evans, Elizabeth Bechard, Ruth Q. Wolever. 2019. “Expressive writing to improve resilience to trauma: A clinical feasibility trial.” Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 34:240-246