Fractures into flickers: an interpretive phenomenological analysis of experiences in structured expressive writing among depressed college students

Depression among college students continues to attract global attention. As a low-cost intervention, structured expressive writing has gained increasing recognition. However, the subjective experiences and underlying psychological processes of depressed college students undergoing such interventions remain underexplored. This study adopts a phenomenological approach to investigate the psychological changes experienced by three college students diagnosed with depression during a six-month structured expressive writing intervention. Drawing on eight in-depth interviews and twelve writing samples, this study employs interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to identify two core experiential themes: Emotional Flow and Transformation and Active Engagement with Negative Emotions. The findings indicate that the three participants exhibited significant differences in their experiences during the intervention process. For vulnerable individuals with deep trauma backgrounds and accompanying cognitive–perceptual distribution, merely introducing interventions centered on emotional expression may be insufficient to activate mentalization processes and may instead give rise to adverse emotional experiences. This study enriches the understanding of mentalization theory and offers new insights for future research and clinical practice.