The first meeting of the Writing Through Recovery Group is Thursday, Dec. 2, at the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County’s Jamestown program. Jill Marsh is facilitating the weekly gathering that uses writing to empower recovery and personal growth.

Sometimes when a person cannot use their voice to describe their trauma, they are able to write about their thoughts, their past, and their pain.

Writing Through Recovery is a new supportive writing group at the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County (MHA). Created to empower recovery and personal growth, the group’s first meeting is Thursday, December 2, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Gateway Center, Door 14, 31 Water St., Jamestown.

Writing and journaling can be used to help in recovery. Individuals can write about their own experiences, what they have been through and where they are headed. They can choose to write a personal log of events, memories, how they have coped with drugs, alcohol, trauma, or attempted suicide. They can write about their successes: Stories, poems, even a single sentence can help inspire themselves and others.

Different sizes of notebooks will be provided. Participants can write as much as they are comfortable, from a single word to paragraphs or a poem. Likewise, they can share with others as much or as little as they choose.

A journaler since high school with a degree in journalism and communication, Jill Marsh is the group’s facilitator. Her four years’ service in the U. S. Air Force was extended due to Desert Storm. Until recently, she worked for almost a decade for The Resource Center as Direct Support Professional lead at Edgewater Day Habilitation in Jamestown. She is currently working on a book about anxiety, from which she suffers.

All Mental Health Association services are free. No registration is necessary: Just come.

With programs in both Jamestown and Dunkirk, the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County is a peer recovery center offering support groups and individual coaching for people looking to improve their lives, deepen wellness, thrive in recovery, or support those on a recovery path. Peers use their personal stories to help people find recovery in their own lives in their own way.

To learn more about the Mental Health Association, call 661-9044 or visit MHAChautauqua.org or facebook.com/MHAChautauqua.