‘It’s healing me’: exploring self and recovery through poetry narratives and project-based interventions

BACKGROUND: Individuals with cognitive communication disorders and aphasia experience changes to cognition, communication and psychological status, which can alter their identity and sense of self. Narrative approaches and project-based interventions have both been shown to positively influence renegotiation of identity and sense of self. Poetry shares many of the features of narrative approaches. METHODS: Six individuals with cognitive communication disorders and one with aphasia co-designed a 6-month poetry group that used a narrative approach to poetry and a project-based intervention to disseminate their work. RESULTS: Qualitative analyses identified eight themes, including poetry is healing, didn't know I was capable of writing poetry, poetry provides clarity, poetry refills my tank, poetry provides a sense of accomplishment, learning from one another and feeding off of one another, poetry as a way to process recovery, and poetry has given me a new identity. CONCLUSIONS: Qualitative findings suggest that poetry and project-based interventions have positive effects on renegotiation of identity and sense of self. Poetry supports the expression of trauma and experiences through a metaphorical lens. This helps poets to feel comfortable sharing their compositions with groupmates and disseminate them more broadly. Poetry provides a mechanism for reframing illness narratives into their new narrative identities.