For individuals who have undergone a major traumatic or stressful incident, expressive writing can have the following beneficial therapeutic effects: 1. Writing about a painful, stressful, negative life-event can help one arrange their complicated emotions and thoughts in a much more relatable way. 2. Writing seems to create a psychological distance from one's pain. And this dulls one's feeling of the pain that comes with a memory of the event. 3. Putting feelings into words also gives the writer an advantage of readability. Once written, instead of looking back at the memory, they can look at the words and reappraise their trauma more objectively. This could help them find a new meaning in their experience and discover healing.