The present situation, issues and improved schemes of localizing poetry therapy in China

Abstract

Poetry therapy is a psychological intervention that uses poetic language as the core of treatment and has developed into a more mature psychotherapeutic system in Western countries. With a wave of research, the localization of poetry therapy in China has achieved some success in terms of macro-theory, meso-practice and micro-empirical evidence. However, the existing researches still exhibit following issues which mainly refer to the inadequate deep integration and comparison researches. These two issues are respectively caused by the incomplete mechanism of Western poetry therapy and researchers’ insufficient attention on the adaptation of therapeutic content in the process of localization. Consequently, a double-loop model of the mechanism of poetry therapy based on the transformation of metaphorical meaning could help to alleviate the issue of inadequate integrated research. Meanwhile, a followed therapeutic content adjustment which based on treatment culture comparison could benefit to alleviate the issue of inadequate comparative research. These improved schemes could contribute to advancing the localization of poetry therapy in China and provide a reference for how contemporary psychotherapy research can utilize the traditional culture.