Open Access

Katrin Röhlig, Christina Vedar, Johannes Junker, Susann Kobus

• This article examines the effectiveness of a writing and creative therapy intervention that has patients with traumatic stress rewrite their life stories as fairy tales. The aim is to analyze theThis article examines the effectiveness of a writing and creative therapy intervention that has patients with traumatic stress rewrite their life stories as fairy tales. The aim is to analyze the potentially stabilizing, structuring, and resilience-promoting effects of biographical fairy tale writing in a therapeutic context. The theoretical foundation is the integrative coping and resilience model BASIC Ph, which describes individual coping strategies. This study combines literature-based theoretical groundwork with a case study: as part of a therapeutic intervention, a semi-structured interview was conducted with a traumatized patient and subsequently evaluated using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. The results indicate that rewriting one’s own life story as a fairy tale was perceived as emotionally relieving, structuring, and identity-strengthening. The findings support theoretical assumptions about narrative processes in trauma therapy. Biographical fairy tale work may represent a promising approach within the field of creative therapeutic methods – potentially extending beyond the medium of writing. Further research, particularly with bigger samples and regarding long-term effects, is needed.…