The journey towards active self‐care and empowerment: Insights from a thematic analysis of a women's therapeutic expressive writing group (UK).

There is a strong evidence base that demonstrates the beneficial impact of engaging in therapeutic writing tasks, often with reference to the successful emotional processing of traumatic life events. This paper looks to explore the experiences and impact of a community‐based therapeutic expressive writing group, which embraced a direct psychoeducational model to enhance emotional well‐being in a group of women. From an experiential qualitative position that embraces a "hermeneutics of empathy", this study uses a thematic analysis (TA) methodology (informed by the work of Braun & Clarke (2013) to explore the group members' narratives obtained through semistructured interviews. The study reveals the significance of a number of key factors, including the importance of the group setting, the identification of core therapeutic writing activities, the beneficial impact of skilled and supportive therapist facilitation, and the emotional value in "letting go" of unhelpful thoughts and feelings in order to strengthen psychological well‐being and resilience. The findings have important implications for service commissioning and the proactive delivery of effective time‐limited, low‐cost mental health interventions within primary settings across society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]