Alive, Not Silent: Writing as Self Care

Posted byDr. Bree E. CookPosted inMental Health and Wellness

the ellipses project's avatarThe Ellipses Project

By Caitlin

What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say?
– Audre Lorde

I am not alone. Whatever else there was or is, writing is with me.
– Lidia Yuknavitch

Something very profound about the synthesis of my being: how only writing composes it: how nothing makes a whole unless I am writing.
– Virginia Woolf

June 2006. I am sixteen years old. My father has been dead a week. One night, I start to write in my journal. It’s a habit I’ve had for years but now trauma adds a sense of immediacy and necessity to the act of writing. I slip into a trance-like state and begin to write to the rhythm of my own pulse; this is writing with blood in it, it flows, gushes, it’s astonishing how much comes out and how free I feel in the purging. The…

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Published by Dr. Bree E. Cook

Dr. Bree (Davis) Cook began her appointment as Vice President in May 2018. In this role Dr. Cook serves as the College’s Chief Academic Officer and as the Accreditation Liaison Officer. In her most recent position she served as associate dean of POC's School of Cultural & Family Psychology (SCFP). Dr. Cook has also held positions as the academic coordinator, assistant professor and clinical training coordinator in the SCFP. Prior to coming into higher education, Dr. Cook spent over 15 years in leadership and management positions in non-profits, serving as Family Based Services Director, Eden Dual Diagnosis Program Manager & IRB Chair and as a Staff Psychologist at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Dr. Cook holds a Psy.D. and master degree in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Multicultural & Community from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, and baccalaureate degree from University of California San Diego. She is also a Certified Family Life educator (CFLE). Dr. Cook has presented over 25 papers, seminars and workshops at a number of professional conferences such as, WASC Academic Resource Conference, Race, Ethnicity and Place Conference, National Association of African American Studies & Affiliates International Conference. She is a member of the Society for Community Research and Action (Division 27 of the American Psychological Association), National Association of African American Studies and the National Council of Family Relations.

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