Bad Poetry For Better Mental Health

Thoughts or comments? Send us a text! The quickest emotional breakthroughs are rarely the prettiest and that’s exactly the point. I’m joined by licensed clinical mental health counselor Margaret Bryden, author of How I Understand It: A Bad Poet’s Guide to Mental Health and Resilience, to make the case for something most of us never consider: writing “bad poetry” as a serious mental health tool. We get into why poetry can work even when journaling doesn’t. Journaling can spiral into facts, details, and trying to sound reasonable, while your real emotions stay out of reach. Poetry is different. It’s condensed meaning wrapped in heightened emotion, and it nudges you straight into what’s true. Margaret explains how short poems and even haikus can help with anxiety by slowing the nervous system, pulling you into the present moment, and creating distance from the “tornado” of thoughts. We also talk about containment: putting big, abstract feelings into a symbolic structure so they feel more manageable on the page than they do in your body. Then we zoom out to narrative authority, the idea that you get the final word on your life. With filters, social media polish, and AI-generated language everywhere, it’s easy to hand over your voice without noticing. This conversation is a reminder that your words matter, your meaning-making matters, and no machine can tell your story better than you can. You’ll leave with practical prompts like “What am I carrying today?”, plus ideas for using poetry in therapy, for resilience, and for tracking progress over time. Subscribe for more conversations on women’s mental health or share this with a friend who needs their voice back. You can find Margaret HERE https://www.sageinsighttherapy.com/ Support the show BUY ME A COFFEE or SUPPORT ALFIE'S TREAT STASH Learn more about my book, Nature Knows: Grow and Thrive through the Wisdom of Plants HERE. Comments about this episode? Suggestions for a future episode? Email me directly at [email protected].  Want to be a guest on No Shrinking Violets Podcast for Women? Send Mary Rothwell a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/noshrinkingviolets Follow me on Facebook and Instagram, and check out my website!