Date
10-13-2023
Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
Chair
James Corey Latta
Keywords
healing, therapy, creative writing, storytelling, fiction, writer, reader, author, relationship, therapeutic, trauma processing
Disciplines
Creative Writing | Psychology
Recommended Citation
Klepper, Alicia Rose, "The Healing Power of Creative Storytelling: Utilizing Fiction as a Means of Therapy in the Writer/Reader Relationship" (2023). Masters Theses. 1066.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/1066
Abstract
What if we wrote the challenging portions of our lives as comedies or the boring parts as grand adventures? What if we recast painful experiences into creative stories that allow us to live in proximity to our circumstances and not be overwhelmed? Storytelling is how we bridge our lives with creativity as a way to heal from the past, process the present, and hope for the future. This thesis explores how the tradition of creative storytelling has evolved to enable writers and readers to uncover and connect elements of life that would otherwise be too painful to process. By bridging life events through creative writing, not only does the writer benefit from the therapeutic power of storytelling, but they also participate in building community through testimony. As readers discover shared challenges from writers who cast their experiences into the work, they find pathways to their ability to cope. Readers are then encouraged to utilize creative storytelling to discover their own journeys toward wholeness.
