Writing is something most of us do mechanically every day. Although we’re more inclined to swap the traditional pen and paper for a computer keyboard these days, writing by hand still has many significant advantages. Stimulating thought, creativity and imagination, the benefits don’t stop there. In fact, have you ever heard of “graphotherapy”? It’s a fairly recent technique based on the therapeutic virtues of the act of writing. Surprising, isn’t it? Well, not really! Writing is not just about copying text. It also allows us to express our feelings through words. So why not study it to reveal the hidden sides of our personality?

Although this approach was originally designed to treat dysgraphia, it is now also used in the context of personal development. Read on to find out more.

What is graphotherapy?

During the first years of school, when children are beginning to trace letters and write their names, it’s not uncommon for some of them to have a little difficulty. Dysgraphia has a direct impact on the child’s ability to transcribe text, perform basic graphic gestures or master finger movements when tracing letters. This handicap can become a real source of anxiety, and even academic failure. Graphotherapy was originally designed to help children overcome this difficulty.

In fact, it plays a key role in building the self-confidence of the youngest children, and thus has a major impact on the development of their personalities. Neurological research has shown that the process of learning to write (but also to read) produces structural changes in the brain. What’s more, dysgraphia may actually conceal a deep-seated malaise, caused by family problems, mood and attention disorders, or even a psychological shock (bereavement, illness).

Graphotherapy therefore focuses on the various points that our handwriting can reveal about our personality, at its most authentic. In this case, our handwriting becomes a reflection of our unconscious. What we don’t necessarily reveal to others can be found in it, as a symbol of our wounds and frustrations. That’s why researchers believe that re-educating or analyzing the graphic system has numerous benefits in the field of personal development.

WHEN TO USE THIS METHOD
Graphotherapy offers a number of significant advantages. Handwriting analysis (or graphology) can be an effective tool for personal development or improving day-to-day habits. Indeed, you can assume that the way you write is a conscious choice. After all, it’s you who makes the graphic gestures required to trace letters and produce text. However, you can also identify individual personality traits that run deep in your subconscious.

Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that this technique is first and foremost an approach to overcoming dysgraphic problems. The initial aim of graphotherapy is to consciously change and modify graphic forms, strokes and gestures. This will enable them to cope better with various challenges and improve their handwriting as the sessions progress. This help can therefore prove invaluable for children suffering from learning problems, a disorder which, as we saw earlier, can conceal behavioral problems. It’s also a form of reverse psychology, based on the handwriting exercise.

SUPPORT FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
The graphotherapist looks a little further than appearances. When studying a text, he or she asks numerous questions to explore the writing in depth. Symbolic graphotherapy focuses on a number of points, including :

Where are there erasures?
Letter mix-ups?
Omissions?
When does the plural replace the singular?
When does the feminine replace the masculine? (for spanish, french…)

In addition to analyzing letter formation, he also looks at common mistakes, structural lapses and the distribution of writing on the page.

This type of graphological analysis is akin to psychoanalysis. It makes sense of everything we don’t understand about our handwriting. In this way, symbolic graphotherapy enables us to become aware of and, above all, to subsequently modify some of our behaviours. Since it has been established that the gesture of writing goes from the unconscious to the hand, the graphotherapist starts from the hand and goes back to the unconscious. This analysis then functions as a kind of collaboration with the unconscious, to see more clearly into oneself.

On the other hand, graphotherapists who offer this kind of service often have a completely different training background, and are more likely to present themselves as personal development coaches.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A GRAPHIC THERAPIST?
Graphotherapy is a technique that requires the intervention of a qualified and competent professional. What’s more, these specialists work in a variety of fields. There are the classic graphotherapists, who generally work with children suffering from dysgraphia. They focus on improving handwriting. As speech therapists do with language, they will help children and teenagers re-educate their handwriting. Through playful exercises, their work enables them to :

Give mobility to the wrist;
Relax the muscles involved in writing;
make handwriting more fluid and legible.

In the first case, graphotherapy aims to improve poor handwriting, which is often caused by the child’s tenseness. The professional also teaches them how to hold their pen properly, or how to adopt a good posture when writing. It can be adapted to a wide audience, as dysgraphia can have many causes:

Dyslexia ;
A visual or hearing disability;
Or mental overload (a mind that’s too fast and a hand that can’t keep up with the pace of thought).

He will also form a genuine helping relationship with the child.

HOW CAN GRAPHOTHERAPY HELP IN THE WORKPLACE?
You’ve undoubtedly heard of major companies employing graphologists to analyze the personality of candidates through their handwriting? According to them, the way we write says a lot about us: upward-looking handwriting, for example, shows someone to be optimistic. A broad handwriting, on the other hand, shows someone who’s outgoing. Also, a wide spacing of letters would indicate a clear, synthetic mind. Even if no scientific study has been able to confirm this kind of analysis, these ideas seem, to many, highly relevant. This is one of the reasons why graphotherapy is gaining in popularity.

This type of graphological analysis focuses on three elements:

The person’s intellectual life and open-mindedness: does he or she have a concrete or abstract intelligence? How do they analyze things?
Social relations: is he or she a team player or manager? Are they shy or outgoing?
Her ambitions for the future: is she looking for social recognition? Is she enthusiastic about the job? Is she passionate and ambitious? Is he or she ready to make an effort?

This is where graphotherapy comes in. This observation provides important information for assessing a future employee’s suitability for the job. It should be pointed out, however, that few companies use this tool for recruitment purposes. What’s more, there are too many contradictions in this analysis for the employer to reject your application on the basis of this criterion alone.

In personal development, however, this approach takes on a completely different meaning.

HOW DOES A GRAPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS WORK?
The sequence of sessions depends on the objective to be achieved. To support a child with a learning disability with graphotherapy, the treatment begins with an initial 2-hour interview with the child and his or her parents. This is the opportunity to establish initial contact. The child’s willingness and readiness to continue with the therapy is essential. The professional will then set up a weekly follow-up program lasting from 6 to 10 months.

In the case of adults, the support will take a different form in the context of personal development. During the first session, the person being analyzed and the handwriting specialist will identify recurring elements in the person’s handwriting. The graphotherapy sessions will then serve as a basis for building up the individual’s graphic signature, which will be motivated by his or her unconscious. Indeed, it is assumed that the way in which letters are formed through our pen always stems from what we have repressed and of which we are not always aware.

This highly personal and spontaneous practice can reveal elements of our personality, and even of our unconscious memories. It can also help the patient identify his or her qualities and faults. It can reveal various problems (including emotional dependency) and their possible origins. The professional graphotherapist will then help the patient to find these different components and make sense of them. In the case of post-traumatic shock linked to a past event, for example, symbolic analysis enables us to become truly aware of what happened. Why did it happen? And how did it affect us?

What about you? Have you ever heard of this technique? Have you ever used it? . To practice this method, there’s a whole process that I’ve defined in an article.

Which of his methods do you prefer?