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About Dr. Sheppard Kominars
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 I have been writing journals since 1955. In October, 2000, after chemotherapy and radiation for cancer, I wrote four pages in my journal about helping others recovering from cancer. An important work, Pennebaker's Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions (Guilford Press, New York, 1990, 1997), had already validated the importance of using journal writing to recover from crises. These studies made clear to me that I should do workshops for survivors of crises such as health, family problems, divorce, professional set-backs, and especially aging.
My workshops began in February, 2001, on "Eleven Long," the bone-marrow transplant floor of UCSF. Next, at Kaiser Permanente and then at the San Francisco Public Library. In the fall of 2001, workshops began at the Complementary Care Center at Stanford University, in Palo Alto. I have offered these workshops all over the United States and the Cleveland Clinic Press will publish Write for Life: Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit Through Journal Writing the Spring of 2007.
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From the very start, it was clear to me that helping others to write about their feelings of suffering and pain was difficult. Few, if any, of us have been taught to be self-caring—accepting of ourselves. Finding the way to do this is at the heart of the Write For Life process, and the support of a group can be invaluable. Writing is an action of a very personal nature. It involves engaging the use of imagination, intuition, and the unconscious while, at the same time, acknowledging the self that needs to be the recipient of healing.
Journal writing brings participants into the light, from the darkness and shadows of illness, or emotional invisibility that sets in because of their belief that it is safer to hide suffering and pain from loved ones. Through writing, participants learn to give themselves permission to express emotions, speak about fears, and record wishes. These are a revelation to the one who needs it the most: the writer. Without any criticism, with full permission neither to censor nor to confine or limit subject matter, the writer becomes aware that what he thinks and feels is of value in life. And, through this process of learning to live more fully and completely day by day, year by year, the writer creates a personal sanctuary for healing.
Journal writing is an effort at self-caring and supports the journey through life. Each journal entry that explores the pain and the joy and all that is in-between supports the struggle to survive. It is an act of love. Discover how this book, Write for Life: Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit Through Journal Writing, can change lives. Or contact me to arrange for presentations and workshops.
Sincerely,
Sheppard B. Kominars
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