Dr Kylie Fitzpatrick is a published author who has taught on the world-leading Creative Writing degree program at Bath Spa University in the UK and has worked in script development for the BBC and ABC. Her doctoral thesis explored creativity and the unconscious mind, which led to her research into writing for insight, clarity and recovery and to developing Curative Writing. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Australian National University.

Curative Writing reconnects us with our authentic voice. When we write something down, as opposed to verbalising it, the brain reorders our thoughts, often revealing what the noisy mind has overlooked. The human brain thinks in narrative and is drawn to stories that have structure and purpose. Curative Writing allows us to find the structure and pur-pose in our life stories.

Origins

Unconscious processes govern much of human behaviour. The unconscious mind communicates with the conscious mind via instinct and intuition, creativity, empathy, and even through the physical body. In the early twentieth century a new field of research opened up to investigate the latent wisdom of the unconscious mind. This is now known as depth psychology.

Curative Writing is influenced by the ground-breaking life-work of the depth psychologist Ira Progoff, who wrote the first doctoral thesis on Carl Jung and further progressed Jung’s work into unconscious processes. Curative Writing is also informed by Narrative Therapy, developed by psychotherapist Michael White, and by social psychologist James Pennebaker’s insight into writing as a means of discovering personal meaning.

Progoff saw writing as a means of identifying one’s life-direction, and neuropsychology now recognises the benefit of life-writing to our mental health and wellbeing. Curative Writing combines simple journaling and narrative techniques which can lead to profound insights and changes.

Kylie facilitates courses, seminars and workshops in the workplace, for arts organisations, within academia, and in communities.