This week we’re chatting with Jodie Cariss, therapist and founder of high street therapy service Self Space.

This month, Self Space launches its Open Letters project, a growing library of hundreds of letters submitted by individuals across the country exploring their mental health to tackle stigma and break down unhelpful stereotypes. So it’ll come as little surprise to hear that Cariss’s One Good Thing is all about the written word. Let’s get into it.

Hey, Jodie! If you could recommend One Good Thing that we can all do for our mental wellbeing, what would it be?

Write a letter. Letter writing is a powerful tool for promoting good mental health. Its roots in therapy go back decades and it’s been used in many therapeutic contexts, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), arts therapies and psychodynamic therapy.

Why is letter writing so powerful?

Letter writing helps us by providing an outlet for our emotions. Often, when we are struggling with difficult emotions or experiences, it can be hard to articulate them in the moment. Writing a letter allows us to slow down, reflect on our experiences and put our emotions into words. Out the head, onto the page. This process can be cathartic and can help us gain new insights into our experiences.

From a Jungian perspective, letter writing can be seen as a way of engaging with the unconscious. Jung believed that the psyche was made up of both conscious and unconscious elements, and that the unconscious played a powerful role in shaping our experiences and behaviours. In Jungian therapy, the goal is often to bring unconscious material to the surface and integrate it into conscious awareness. Letter writing can be a powerful tool for doing this. When we write a letter, we are engaging in an act of self-expression that may bypass our conscious defences and allow unconscious material to emerge.

One Good Thing: want to be kinder to yourself? Try writing a letter