Hi everyone,
Recently, I watched Jimmy Barnes, an Australian/Scottish rockstar talk about his new autobiography “Working Class Boy” and how he came to tell his life story. He talked about the horrendous abuse, neglect and trauma he experienced as a child. The interview also revealed about how he contemplated suicide, even when he was extremely successful. Then he, through the help of his wife and family decided to confront his past and give up drinking and drugs.
He bravely embarked on this journey. What was interesting to me was that he said he started to see a therapist, and they suggested he write it all down. He said “I was only able to confront my past by writing it down, otherwise I would not have been able to confront all of the trauma. When I did, I felt like I could finally put it behind me.”
Men, please, please listen to the men who are discovering writing therapy. There are too many men suffering in silence, with trauma and pain. In writing therapy you do not have to speak about your trauma, although with a good counsellor this would be excellent, but you allow yourself freedom to write it down. Write down all of the ugly thoughts and feelings and memories. Then you can burn or throw it away, and you never have to show anyone. This is why men benefit more from writing therapy than even women do. Because men finally have the freedom to express these emotions they are feeling underneath.
You can express your emotions in a safe way, and nothing you have gone through will overwhelm you in writing therapy because you are in control of what you write. The main thing is you allow yourself to be completely honest and raw about what you have gone through and you are experiencing.
Thanks Jimmy Barnes, for being honest and raw and showing other men that to face your demons, and use writing to do this, is not a weak thing to do, on the contrary, it is the strongest thing to do! I am so happy to see that Jimmy Barnes has embraced writing therapy. My dream is that men and boys and women and girls all around the world will begin to use these simple techniques that are well established to free themselves from trauma and pain.
Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day! 😀
If you want to know how to start using writing therapy you can download my short book here:
Suzanne Strong 