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7 papers
Pennebaker reviews more than ten years of research on how telling or writing stories about traumatic or difficult experiences relates to health. He highlights studies done by him and other teams around the world. The essay focuses mainly on reported physical health benefits of writing about these experiences and summarizes…
Researchers surveyed 886 people who attended guided psychedelic retreats to test a scale of shared, togetherness experiences called "communitas." They found that stronger communitas during ceremonies was linked to small but measurable increases in psychological wellbeing and social connectedness up to four weeks after the retreat. Good relationships with facilitators,…
This article offers a new humanities-based theory about how falling seriously ill can affect a person’s quality of life. The authors combine ideas about contingency (the feeling that life could have been different), narrative identity (how people make life stories), and quality of life to explain how people make meaning…
EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) is a psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). More than 30 randomized controlled trials report it is effective for both adults and children. Most international clinical practice guidelines now list EMDR as a first-line treatment. The paper reviews the current evidence on EMDR’s effectiveness,…
This study looked at emotions tied to personal meanings in 104 men in Poland who were measured for midlife crisis. Men were put into three groups by a Midlife Crisis Scale: high (27 men), medium (37), and low (40). The high-crisis group had less self-enhancing and less positive affect, and…
This 2022 commentary argues that restoring nature and reconnecting people to healthy natural places should be a key public‑health approach for mental health. The authors use hopeful stories and UK examples to show how access to nature and a sense of kinship with the natural world can support well‑being, and…
The Trevor Project surveyed more than 28,000 LGBTQ young people in the U.S. (ages 13–24) in 2023. The report found high levels of suicide risk, anxiety, and depression. Many young people wanted mental health care but could not get it. The report also links anti-LGBTQ policies and victimization with worse…
