Therapy songs are good for you.

When life gets you down and you have no-one to talk to about how things are, instead of bottling up your emotions write a song about it.

Writing a song about your feelings is a wonderful way of expressing your emotions and a great way to get things of your chest. There are unfortunately many people who have never had the chance to release their bottled feelings from deep inside themselves, so for us songwriters who can write therapy songs we are a very fortunate lot indeed. Just remember, you dont have to play every song that you write in the public arena and no-one needs to know about them. They can be your little secret if you wish just as long as you write them.

Generally if you have a problem it's widely recognised as a healthy thing to share the problem with friends and family. Writing therapy songs follows a similar concept but you are having the conversation with yourself generally, and by putting your problems or emotions into a musical context you're putting a positive spin on a negative situation. At the end of it all you can at least say to yourself that some good songs came out of a bad situation

Writing songs about your feelings put those feelings into a different perspective because you have to think about them in a different way. Instead of spending hours telling yourself the same old long protracted story about what's happening in your life, you condense it all into a four minute song. That requires you to 'cut to the chase' and by doing that the problems or emotions seem to be not as intense as was first thought.

What you do with the songs is totally up to you however, it's how these songs help you through the tough times not what you do with them that is the important thing here.

I have written a lot of therapy songs, some I play in public and some I dont and from time to time I think about what my life would've been like if I hadn't written those songs. Actually, on second thoughts I'm not going to go there - it's just far too messy.

Dont be afraid to write about how you feel even if you dont want to face up to it. This is a great exercise in being really honest with yourself and your feelings. Dont you feel a therapy session coming on about now?

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Songwriter/Musician

P.S. The Doctor is now in!