Researching, Writing, and Publishing Trauma Stories

Learning from Practice

Abstract

This paper is a reflexive narrative account of re-visiting a study in which 10 participants (including myself) authored stories of lived experience of childhood trauma, and a follow-up study of the impact on us of writing and publishing those stories. As a social constructionist I re-examine that work through the lenses of my current theoretical knowledge and experience, accumulated over the intervening years, against a societal backdrop that has shaped my understandings. The paper covers the ethical issues raised by this work and the contribution neuroscience has made to my understanding of writing and thinking about trauma, the body and transformation. My intention for this paper is to inform and educate those who encourage and facilitate people to write personal stories, and researchers in the field of writing for wellbeing who research those practices, whether that of other practitioners or their ow