Socialinis darbas

The stigmatization of persons with psychiatric diagnose is real fact till this time. This stigmatization can be experienced in the system of psychiatric hospitals as well as in the society. After treatment of psychosis person has consciousness, can communicate, but often this patient isn’t able to deal with stigma. Patient accepts stigma like discrimination and experiences negative emotions, doubts in life meaning. Negative emotions have negative influence on patients’ behavior, mood and process of psychiatric disease. Stigmatized persons often loose hope, self esteem; belief is their power to manage their lives. Patients need emphatic listener and listener’s help to deal with their problems. This article discusses poetry therapy as a tool for personal growth in emotional, cognitive and social levels. Process is guided by professional therapist, and is understood like interaction between literature, client and therapist. Reading of literature (one poem) acts on person, but the main component of the process of healing is person’s response to literature. Emotional response is viewed like material for exploration in existential way in the process of poetry therapy. Therapist helps person to explore inner feelings and leads to new personal insight. The author of this article is a professional psychiatrist and poet, 10 years uses poetry therapy in various groups. Biggest experience is in the work with patients with psychiatric illness. Author emphasizes on catharsis,
which leads to relaxation, strengthens intellectual abilities and serves for better adaptation and socialization. She finds that is very useful to compose poetical text for generalization of session. Sentences of every member of group are included into poetical improvisation, which is viewed like collaborative poetic thinking. Poetic improvisations are based on theory of archetypes (C. Jung) and
on modality of old Baltic outlook (N. V
lius). This technology animates group.