Expressive writing: what it is and how to try it

Short answer: expressive writing is a method from psychology research. You write your deepest thoughts and feelings about something stressful or emotional, without stopping, for 15–20 minutes at a time, usually three to five times and often on consecutive days. To try it, pick something you feel you can handle now, set a 20-minute timer, write about what happened and how it made you feel, and don’t worry about spelling.

Most journaling is loose. You write a line or a page about whatever the day held. Expressive writing is narrower: one hard subject, a timer, and a few sessions close together. Researchers have been testing it since the 1980s, so there’s a fair amount known about how it’s done and where it falls short.

Where expressive writing comes from

The first study, by Pennebaker and Beall, came out in 1986. They asked college students to write for 15 minutes on four consecutive days about “the most traumatic or upsetting experiences” of their lives. A comparison group wrote about superficial things, like their room or their shoes. Four months later, the students who had written about their deepest thoughts and feelings had visited the health center less often.

Most later studies used a version of the method built on the work of James Pennebaker, of the University of Texas at Austin. A 2005 review by Karen Baikie and Kay Wilhelm describes it like this:

• 3 to 5 writing sessions, often on consecutive days
• 15 to 20 minutes per session
• a traumatic, stressful or emotional experience as the subject
• no feedback on the writing from anyone

If you’re new to journaling in general, how to start journaling covers the everyday kind. This page is about the structured one.

The instructions researchers give

The standard instructions, reprinted in that review, ask people to write their “very deepest thoughts and feelings” about the most traumatic experience of their life or an extremely important emotional issue. Two lines carry most of the weight:

In your writing, I’d like you to really let go and explore your deepest emotions and thoughts.

The only rule is that once you begin writing, you continue until the time is up.

They also suggest some directions. You might tie the subject to your relationships with parents, partners, friends or relatives. Or to your past, your present or your future. Or to who you have been, who you’d like to be and who you are now. You can stay with the same subject every day or switch, and spelling and grammar don’t matter.

How to try it over four days

A practice guide from UC Berkeley lays out a home version: 20 minutes a day, four days in a row. Here it is with a few details from the Baikie and Wilhelm review added.

1. Choose what to write about. Pick an experience that matters to you and that you feel you can handle now. The Berkeley guide advises against writing about a severe trauma too soon after it happened, or about anything that feels too overwhelming.
2. Find a private spot. Somewhere you won’t be interrupted. The review suggests setting aside 30 minutes: 20 for writing and 10 to settle afterward.
3. Write on whatever you like. A notebook, scrap paper and a laptop all work. Both sources leave that choice to you.
4. Write for 20 minutes without stopping. Cover what happened, how it affected you and how it connects to other parts of your life. Try not to edit or judge it as you go.
5. Come back the next day. Same subject or a new one. The Berkeley version runs four days. Studies have used three to five sessions.
6. Optional: change seats. Once the four days are done, the Berkeley guide suggests writing about the situation from the point of view of a neutral observer, or of the other people involved.

Write the event and the feeling together

It’s tempting to treat expressive writing as a place to vent. The research points somewhere else.

In the 1986 study, writing only about the emotions wasn’t as helpful as writing about the event and the emotions together. The review also found little support for the idea that the benefit comes from letting feelings out. Its most likely explanation is that writing helps people turn a messy experience into a coherent story. Studies that analyzed the writing itself found that people who benefited more tended to use more words like “understand,” “realize” and “because” as the sessions went on.

So write what happened, what you felt, and what you make of it. Here’s what a few minutes can look like. It’s an example, not anyone’s real writing:

We moved Dad into the care home in March and I still haven’t told anyone how relieved I was. That’s the part I can’t say out loud. I was worn out, and I think I was angry at him for getting old, which isn’t fair. Maybe the relief and the guilt are both true, because I love him and I was also running out of myself.

It names the event, two feelings that pull against each other, and a guess at why. It doesn’t have to be tidy.

There’s a related finding about naming feelings. In a 2007 brain-imaging study led by Matthew Lieberman, putting a word to the emotion in a negative image dampened the response of the amygdala and other limbic regions. The authors suggest that labeling feelings may reduce emotional reactivity. It was one lab study, so treat it as a hint.

You may feel worse first

This part catches people off guard. The usual short-term effect of expressive writing is more distress and a lower mood right after a session. According to the review, that short-term upset didn’t appear to be harmful, and the benefits studies found showed up at later follow-ups.

A few practical things follow:

• Keep to about 20 minutes. The review recommends a 20-minute limit so the task doesn’t feel overwhelming. You can keep going if you want to.
• You can stop at any time. The review says people should be told this, and it holds when you’re doing it on your own.
• Leave yourself a buffer. Since you may feel stirred up afterward, pick a time when you don’t have to go straight into something else. That’s what the extra 10 minutes are for.

What the research says, and what it doesn’t

There’s a lot of it. A 2014 paper from UCLA counts more than 400 studies since the 1986 one. The results are modest, and they vary a lot.

• A 2006 meta-analysis by Joanne Frattaroli found an overall effect that was modest but statistically significant, with wide variation from study to study. The UCLA authors read that as a sign that expressive writing works better in some contexts than others.
• The 2005 Baikie and Wilhelm review concluded that studies show some benefits, but the findings are at times equivocal, and the findings for emotional health are less consistent than those for physical health.
• A few studies found that people writing about traumatic experiences did worse than people writing about neutral topics.
• The 2014 UCLA study itself, with 116 young adults, found no overall effect of the writing on the measures it tracked. Its authors suggest the method may not suit people who don’t usually express their emotions.

The review is clear that expressive writing shouldn’t replace medical or psychological treatment. It also notes there’s no direct evidence that this structured method beats simple diary-keeping, only a suggestion that it might. If you try it and it doesn’t suit you, that’s worth knowing too.

Expressive writing and everyday journaling

You don’t have to pick one. A four-day block can sit alongside a short line on ordinary days.

What to do with the pages afterward

The Berkeley guide puts it simply: your writing is for your eyes only. In the studies, nobody gave feedback on what people wrote. In the clinic the review describes, whether to share it was left to the writer. Keep the pages, put them away, or read them back later. That’s your call.

If things have felt heavy for a while

A diary can't take the place of talking to someone. If hard days keep coming, talk to someone you trust or a professional.

In the US you can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time.

Trying it in a tea house

Bium Tea House: Mood Diary is a mood diary app built around the lighter, everyday kind of writing. You pick one of five teacups for how the day felt, add a sticker for what it was about, and write a line, or more if you like. The next time you come by, May has left a short note in your diary, written with AI.