Writing & Poetry, and The Spoken Word can empower  individuals and communities. 
Words  can unite, uplift, teach, build 
communities, inspire, and heal. 

Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history. - Plato

Note: General Arts Therapy Resources are listed under 
Visual Arts 

Can Literature Help Future Doctors Get Inside Their Patients' Heads?

The thrust of this short Brown University Alumni Magazine article is "YES"!

Chronic Poetry 

Magazine created by the students in Mike James' and Megan Wolf's fourth period Poetry Class at ABCD University High School in Boston. This is a very nice and content 

Effects of Writing About Stressful Experiences on Symptom Reduction in Patients With Asthma or Rheumatoid Arthritis  

This complete text article from The Journal of the American Medical Association profiles a study which purports to show a direct link between the act of writing and medical outcomes. It makes for interesting reading.  

The Favorite Poem Project 

Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky's special undertaking to capture regular Americans saying poems they love and speaking about the poems' meaning in their lives. So far, the organization has created created fifty videos--many of them testaments to how poetry is help and salve. The organization also is dedicated to outreach and education. This is a really unique and wonderful resource and a great example of cutting-edge website technology at the service of humanity.      

Indivisible: Stories of American Community

"Indivisible: Stories of American Community is an exploration of community life in America by some of this country's most accomplished photographers, radio producers, and folklorists. Here are the stories of twelve communities where people are coming together to make their small piece of the world a better place to live."  

The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) 

An energetic, world-wide community of people who share a love for the use of language arts in growth and healing. Members represent a wide range of professional experience, schools of therapy, educational affiliations, artistic disciplines, and other fields of training in both mental and physical health. In addition to its professional membership, NAPT welcomes all persons who are interested in the power of the healing word. Basic informational site about the organization and its Journal.

A Poetry Therapy  Interface of the Arts and Psychology 

Barnes and Noble website book profile:  Mazza (social work, Florida State U., Tallahassee), the founder of the , presents an interdisciplinary model for practitioners to utilize creative expression to help clients articulate the challenges they need to face and to advance the research base for the field. Appends sample poems, therapy training exercises, poetic stem sentences, report guidelines and observer forms for group work, the AIDS poetry project workbook, resources, and the National Association for Poetry Therapy Code of Ethics. 

Poetry Therapy 

This site, from The National Coalition of Arts Therapies Associations, offers a nice, concise overview of the use of poetry in therapy 

Real Change 

Seattle's street-newspaper. This is a wonderful resources. The organization sponsors writing workshops in writing. The website includes a number of galleries of paintings and visual artwork as well as poetry and the literary arts.    

Theraputic SOULSPEAK

"Therapeutic SOULSPEAK for at-risk children gives children a way to easily express unresolved conflicts and fears. It helps break down the increasing isolation of children, an isolation that often leads to the type of violence seen recently in our nation's schools."

Therapeutic SOULSPEAK taps into the unconscious almost effortlessly and is both healing and cathartic. It is a non-traumatic process that uses the oldest form of poetry, an oral, story-telling poetry, to allow children to easily express their deepest feelings. It is also a poetry that young people find instantly appealing. It is performed in antiphonal fashion (speaker-responder) to slow music, and is learned almost instantaneously by anyone, even slow learners. No previous knowledge of poetry, or even reading and writing is required. Our experience has shown that a large number of children continue to use SOULSPEAK on their own and even teach it to their parents."

Words Can Heal

"Words Can Heal is a national campaign to eliminate verbal violence, curb gossip and promote the healing power of words to enhance relationships at every level. At a time when so many feel that outside events are beyond their control, we offer concrete tools and know-how to dramatically rebuild our communities and relationships through the words we speak and the way we communicate. At a time of national crisis, as we re-evaluate our lives and re-order priorities, the Words Can Heal message resonates even more forcefully." This site deals not with the written word but with the spoken word, the words spoken between individuals and between family members. It is a gentle site full of inspiration and resources, well worth investigation.