Next Meeting: TBA

Date: March 4, 2010

Place: Adelphi Manhattan, 75 Varick Street (1 Hudson Square), Room 203

Time: 7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

Speaker: Maureen Welsh

Title: The Emotional Effects of Storytelling: An Analogue Study

 Abstract: Storytelling has been an important component of the psychotherapy process since the birth of the “talking cure.” Research has shown that writing about emotional experiences has long-term beneficial effects on physical and psychological functioning and further, that some types of “talking” are more beneficial than others. Using Multiple Code Theory and the referential process as its theoretical base, this study sought to expand upon existing research by investigating the relationship between particular linguistic processes and immediate emotional experience. A group of participants were asked to tell stories about past and recent emotional events and to name and rate the intensity of their emotional experience before and after telling about the event. The results of the study showed that telling about emotional events in vivid and detailed language increased emotional intensity for both early memories and recent events, and that a particular linguistic pattern of “reliving” and reflection was associated with emotional change for early memories. With further research, we hope to increase our theoretical and practical understanding of how psychological change takes place via the linguistic processes underlying the “talking cure.”