The Triad of Triangulation Mechanisms in Poetry Therapy

Or: What cannot be said might still be written

Abstract

Psychotherapists are confronted with the fact that patients often lack words for their inner world and their experiences. Yet, studies suggest that the healing process requests verbal expression. It is the task of the therapist to guide and accompany their patients to find a way to express what is inside them or what has happened to them, which sometimes is indeed almost unspeakable terror and dread. But “the grief that does not speak whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break”. Shakespeare knew to poetically capture how remaining silent about pain not only leads to isolation, but ultimately to psychological death.

In this regard, expressive poetry therapy offers unique opportunities for the endeavor of coming to language and thus can play an important role in the process of transitioning to verbal expression, entailing a triad of specific, unifying features that facilitate the progression from speechlessness to speech. The triangulation mechanisms include 1) contentual triangulation, in which lyrical language and symbols serve as a transition between the non-verbal and verbal expression in social communication; 2) spatial triangulation, which addresses the constitution of a transitional space and 3) temporal triangulation, which addresses a retrospective reappraisal level, the current level of the here and now, as well as a prospective level. The respective mechanisms will be illustrated by presenting practical examples of poetry therapy.