May Materials Access

May Topic - Writing Across Time: Unfinished Conversations and Shifting Identity

Topic Overview:
Explore how writing can bridge the space between what was left unsaid and what has been forever changed. This session focuses on two core writing practices: timeline and narrative writing to help clients reconstruct identity before and after the loss, and letter-writing as a tool to address unfinished emotional business.

Themes to Explore:

• Timeline exercises that reflect:

• "Who I was before this loss" vs. "Who I am now"

• Identity shifts and values that have emerged through grief

• What parts of the relationship or self feel frozen in time

• Using letter-writing to the deceased, estranged, or symbolically lost to express:

• Regrets

• Unspoken appreciations

• Anger or unmet needs

• Longings or future imaginings

• How narrative writing supports integration of loss without requiring “acceptance”

• Helping clients tolerate the emotional complexity of dual realities: love and resentment, sorrow and relief, presence and absence

Clinical Questions for Consultation:

• When is it helpful to invite writing into grief work, and when might it overwhelm?

• How do we support clients whose losses involve unresolved trauma or betrayal?

• How do we support clients in exploring identity shifts and inviting meaning-making, without imposing it or rushing the process?