This article concerns the therapeutic potential of metaphor in group poetry therapy, concentrating on the poetry therapy process of people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The data was collected in a one-year poetry therapy group. The main questions were: (1) What kind of therapeutic potential can metaphors offer in group poetry therapy? (2) What are the personal meanings and evaluations that the participants give to the therapy process and its effects on their lives? (3) What are the most significant elements in poetry therapy from the viewpoint of the client? The analysis was based on the Grounded theory method. The results showed that the most significant therapeutic factors of the process were social interaction, safety, and written selfexpression. Writing in a group setting, especially through collaborative writing, had many positive effects on the clients. It allowed them to experience life's worth raising their hope. Metaphors and collaborative writing made it possible to discuss difficult personal experiences.

Artikkelissa käsitellyn traumainformoidun toiminnan keskiössä on uudelleen traumatisoitumisen ehkäiseminen. Traumainformoituja työtapoja tarkastellaan kahdesssa eri kirjallisuusterapiaryhmässä. 1) Monikansallisessa Heroines-hankkeessa (2021) keskeiseksi nousivat turvallinen toimintaympäristö, sekä osallistujien kokemukset kirjallisesta ilmaisusta. 2) Rintasyöpää sairastavien kirjoittajaryhmän tarkastelussa nousee puolestaan esiin etäännyttäminen kirjoittamisen keinona. Rintasyövästä kirjoittavien teksteissä metaforat olivat keskeisiä, samoin asioiden personifiointi. Uudelleen traumatisoitumisen välttämisessä keskeisessä roolissa on ohjaaja, joka toimillaan luo ja ylläpitää turvallista toimintaympäristöä. Artikkelissa nostetaan esiin käytännönläheisiä ja kirjallisuusterapiaryhmien ohjaajia hyödyntäviä huomioita traumainformoidusta työtavoista. Liitteenä Karoliina Haverisen kirjoittama katsaus Heroines-antologiaan.

Finnish psychiatric practice has been heavily based on institutionalization. Mental hospitals have thus been part of Finns’ lives in many ways. Our multidisciplinary research group has investigated how experiences in these institutions are remembered today by analysing writings by patients, relatives, personnel and their children, collected in 2014–2015 with the Finnish Literature Society. The memories cover phases of psychiatric care from the 1930s to the mid-2010s. This article presents multiple ways in which experiences that are often difficult verbalize can be interpreted, e.g. by drawing on perspectives from creative, artistic and cultural studies. Collecting and archiving the memories emphasizes their importance as part of national memory. Historical contextualization shows consistencies and inconsistencies in the treatment and organization of psychiatric care in Finland. The analysis of figurative language as a means of conveying traumatic experiences reveals narrative strategies employed to express abusive memories. Artistic research that includes somatic movement practice exemplifies possibilities of researching the memories through corporeality. The examination of the memories of the children of the staff in psychiatric hospitals provides new insights into historical psychiatric hospitals as emotional communities. The different ways of engaging—thematically, corporeally, conceptually, theoretically—with the texts complement each other, reveal the multilayeredness of the memories and help create a richer understanding of the social, cultural and economic significance of the hospitals. Attention to the body, affects and emotions can help generate both new practices, new research questions and new ways of engaging the public with the results of academic research.