The use of poetry as a valuable part of the psychotherapeutic experience has gained increasing acceptance and usage in recent years. Poetry provides a viable modality for releasing intense emotions and reducing anxieties and hostilities. Poetry therapy was used with an 18-year-old male who was experiencing sexual orientation disturbance to examine the effects of such therapy on the client. The subject composed a sequence of seven poems filled with emotionally charged metaphors, symbols, and images, each showing movement toward the resolution of the conflict. The results suggest that the sequence of poems may be interpreted to support the Jungian view that the self may emerge in a hierarchy from the child, to hero, to self. (Author/JAC)