Poetry As Healing And NEVER Getting Off The Growth Train With Emily G Barrett
Show Notes:
New Workshop! Feel More Regulated In Your Relationship
For folks who sometimes feel crazy or dysregulated in our relationships. April 17th, 2026
Emily got into therapy at age 27 when everything on the outside was looking good, but she was feeling miserable. Her therapist welcomed her big emotions and tears, and a new path opened up. She realized that she wanted to be a therapist herself.
She also wrote her first poem, and tapped into a way of healing that she still engages in decades later. In our conversation today, you’ll hear about how she used poetry and other things to heal depression, misery and other constraints.
Emily G Barrett is a queer radical mystic poet and psychologist tossing seeds in the Long Dark*. She is in love with grief, healing and embodiment and wants to live in the culture created through them. For maintenance, her life requires deep crying and dancing at least every few days, often at the same time.
I know her as an Internal Family Systems therapist colleague. I love the way she thinks and expresses herself, so wasn’t surprised to find out she’s a poet. We first met when we were both in The Free Joy Experience hosted by Thea Monyee and Ebony Janice Moore.
*thank you, Francis Weller for this language
Here's some of what we talked about:
Getting into therapy at age 27 and a whole new path opening up (including a career as a therapist!)
Working through a crisis of her sister’s and the line between codependency and loving support
Writing that first poem that described depression “some days are like ice” and bringing it to therapy
Writing a manifesto / poem for living her life
Starting SSRIs and experiencing profound difference in the way she feels about time
Engaging in Authentic Movement
How her poems describe and deepen her dreams