Freestyle Writing Society re-brand to focus on positive benefits of therapeutic writing

The Freestyle Writing Society has decided to re-brand themselves to focus on the mental health benefits of therapeutic writing, after being nominated for a GCU Students’ Association STAR Award.

The Freestyle Writing Society have now changed their name to GCU Scribe, an idea which came about after the society was recognised for their efforts through their GCU Star Awards nomination for ‘Mental Health & Wellbeing Champion’ in 2024.

After receiving positive feedback from members about the positive benefits of writing, the committee members decided to focus on forms of writing that are scientifically proven to improve mental wellbeing.

President of GCU Scribe, Applied Psychology student Rawan Abdelazis explained: “The reason that we decided to re-brand the society is because we got shortlisted for the ‘Best Society for Health & Wellbeing’ and that really gave us a push to focus on that aspect of writing. We realised that this side of writing was what students really benefited from, as well as the actual committee members.

At that point, we just decided to make into something that raised mental health awareness. We’re all Psychology students as well, so it just made sense to align it with our passions.”

Despite their busy schedules, the committee want to ensure that students can get the opportunity to join and attend the society meet-ups.

“We’re hoping to still host the society meet-ups in the Relax and Renew space like we did before. The space is so nice and relaxing so we would like it to take place there. Before, it was a weekly meet-up but we have changed it to a few sessions throughout the months. The committee members are mostly final year students, so it’s tough finding the time like we did before!” Rawan explained.

She added: “The society will include exclusively therapeutic writing which may involve journaling, for example. Again, since we are all Psychology students, we will do our best to help people with that.

In terms of the format, we plan to let members have the option of using a writing prompt or to simply use the session as a safe space to practice a form of therapeutic writing. It’s really just an environment where people can process and express how they may be feeling at the time through writing it out on paper.”

With most of the committee members being in their final year, Rawan wants to ensure that the society can create a lasting legacy. She said: “The whole point of the society when it was initially created was to get people to slow down, sit and process their emotions.

You tend to find that people’s lives can be so busy that they forget to take the time to stop and process their feelings. If something major were to happen in their lives, they might not have the chance to actually acknowledge and express how they may be feeling.”

She added: “For everyone, I think therapeutic writing is a really good thing to try. It might not be perfect the first time you try it; you might have years of emotions to unravel. However, we found that after our first session that students maybe didn’t feel like they knew how to write about their emotions.

After the second session, they got the hang of it and suddenly found it a lot easier to communicate their feelings onto paper. These people went on to be our most consistent members and even when the society had a break during the summer, the members were active in letting us know that they were continuing to write at home. The society helped teach them to practice in their own time and that’s really the point of the society.

Unfortunately, we can’t run the society forever and hope that it can continue after we leave, but we hope that it can equip students with the knowledge so they can practise it themselves.”

Find out more about GCU Scribe by checking out the GCU Students’ Association website