Leading Under Pressure: Expressive Writing as a Pathway to Resilience in School Leaders

The need to support the wellbeing of school administrators is not overstated; it is long overdue. Research over the past three decades has consistently highlighted workload intensification, with principals burdened by operational demands while feeling personally responsible for school success. Post-pandemic realities have intensified these pressures, leading to stress, medical leaves, and early retirements that threaten the sustainability of school leadership. This chapter examines expressive writing (EW) as a reflective practice to foster resilience and authentic leadership. A randomized group of Ontario school administrators participated in six EW sessions within their work context. Approximately 30,000 words were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC 2015; pronounced “Luke”), and the findings revealed emotional shifts into positive affect with greater clarity and hope, and reflective patterns of meaning-making emerged despite recurring concerns with time and value conflicts. This chapter demonstrates EW as a low-cost, scalable tool to sustain leaders under pressure to nurture flourishing schools.