Welcome to The Therapeutic Poet
How can we handle our human tricky things?
Often they get squeezed into the phrase ‘it’s bad for my mental health, but I think that this is a phrase that robs us of a rich and juicy life.
I want to invite you to get into the gloriously gritty granularity of our feelings. You know, those things we're all supposed to pack away neatly with a big label stuck on the top that states, "I'm fine."
I'm Jacky Power (poet and addiction specialist), and between you and me? I used to be terrified of poetry. Those dense, scholarly verses we studied at university that I just could not understand.
Yet here I am, writing it, living it, breathing it - because I discovered poetry isn't about perfect metaphors or clever wordplay, or even understanding the meaning. It's about creating a refuge where our messy, beautiful, complicated feelings can live and breathe.
This space? It's where poetry meets therapy meets real life. Where we get to be gloriously un-fine. Where we trade "it's bad for my mental health" for "I'm feeling scared/confused/overwhelmed/like I want to eat an entire packet of biscuits."
Because feelings aren't disorders - they're signposts.
They're macronutrients for the soul!
What you'll find here:
"Permission to Feel" - A weekly newsletter where we explore all those human-y feelings that nobody taught us how to name. (Did you know there are 87 distinct feelings? And most of us can only name three - happy, sad, angry!) Here, your feelings get to be witnessed, not fixed.
"Beyond I'm Fine" - A gentle space for anyone affected by a loved one's addiction. Because sometimes "I'm fine" means "I'm F**ked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional" - and that's exactly where healing begins.
“Poetry as Medicine” - A place where I simply post my poems in the hope that they encourage you to be the youest you.
Think of this as your emotional playground where:
• We can write nonsense poems that make perfect sense
• Your feelings get to be as big and messy as they need to be
• You're allowed to stomp around the room chanting made-up words
• We trade secret resolutions for honest revelations
• You get to learn the language of feelings (beyond the basic three!)
As I like to say, when fear shows up with its fangs and viciousness, we have a choice - we can either feed it, or look it right in the eye and sing it a song. Sometimes that song might be a perfectly imperfect poem, sometimes it might be a made-up chant, and sometimes it might just be the truth: "Actually, I'm not okay right now."
Come as you are.
Bring your resistance, your "I'm fine" masks, your need to be seen. Let's create some magic together - the kind that happens when we give ourselves permission to feel it all.
Let’s go from here,
Let’s lean more to faith
And less to fear.
Even when it’s
With a hesitant heart
Let me find a way
To make a start.
