Sleeping Letters
Poetry Practice Conversations: Online Event Sunday 25th July 2021, 8pm BST
In her remarkable memoir, Sleeping Letters, Marie-Elsa Bragg offers a meditation on loss, healing and faith, looking back to the childhood moment when her mother took her own life. Using a mixture of prose and poetry, and written partly as a series of unsent letters to both her mother and father, Sleeping Letters is a way of connecting to past family, an attempt to reconcile with loss, as well as a radical exploration of Marie-Elsa’s own faith. Edmund de Waal describes the book as ‘beautiful’ and ‘a remarkable, cadenced recollection of how grief lives in the body. It is poetry as a kind of dance.’
Marie-Elsa will read from her book and be in conversation with poet and writer, Claire Williamson. Claire has also experienced bereavement through suicide and is researching the ‘grief novel’. They will explore how writing can sustain us after loss and what it means to create art from personal experience. There will be opportunities for questions.
Marie-Elsa Roche Bragg (above) is half French, half Cumbrian and was brought up in London. Her novel ‘Towards Mellbreak’ was published by Chatto & Windus in 2017 and ‘Sleeping Letters’ in 2018. She writes for Radio 4, Church Times, Tablet and other papers. She is a Priest in the diocese of London and a Duty Chaplain of Westminster Abbey. https://marie-elsabragg.com/
Claire Williamson (above) is a prize-winning author and former Director of Studies in therapeutic writing at Metanoia Institute. Her most recent collection is ‘Visiting the Minotaur’ from Seren in 2018. She is working on a doctorate on writing the grief novel at Cardiff University. http://www.clairewilliamson.co.uk/
Workshop with Reinekke Lengelle in Canterbury 18th March 2017
How do you tell the story of your life and work? What is meaningful for you? How does your work contribute to the greater good?
I am delighted to be hosting Reinekke Lengelle in Canterbury in March. She is a long-standing friend and colleague who has made a specialism of using expressive writing as a means of working out our ‘career identity’ which is a way of telling, ‘the story of what is meaningful to me in work and life and how I want to be meaningful to others’.
She will be offering a workshop on Saturday 18th March 2017 at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury, 10am-1pm.
Full details here. For booking, please email victoria@thepoetrypractice.co.uk – places are limited.
Writing the Earth: Ecology and Creative Writing – 8 weeks – start date 19th January 2016
The Poetry Practice Summer Celebration in Canterbury – 14th and 15th June 2016
Two writing workshops for personal and professional development with acclaimed writers Geri Chavis and Sarah Salway.
CPD certificates provided. Numbers strictly limited to 14 maximum.
To be followed by a meeting of the Kent Writing and Wellbeing Network.
At the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, 18, High Street, Canterbury CT1 2BD.
Each workshop is £25 per person for Lapidus members, £40 for non-members.
The KWWN meeting is free.
For more details and a booking form, email victoria@thepoetrypractice.co.uk
Introducing Poetry and Story for Growth and Healing with Geri Chavis
Tuesday 14th June 2pm – 5pm
Geri will introduce the basic principles underlying the growth-enhancing and healing features of poetry and fiction. In order to deepen awareness of these features, participants will be invited to share their reactions to several poems and stories and to engage in expressive writing activities. Through these experiences, participants will have the opportunity to witness how such sharing can lead to worthwhile discoveries while fostering a sense of community.
Writing to (and for) Yourself with Sarah Salway
Wednesday 15th June 10am – 1pm
Do you want to ignite your creative spark and have fun exploring your life on the page through a varied series of short guided writing exercises? This workshop is an opportunity to discover new ways of journal writing as well as reinforcing what already works for you. We’ll forget the grammar police, red pens and even neat handwriting as you give yourself space to tune your unique writing voice, liberate your imagination and use language as a map to support your journey to self-discovery and growth. You’ll write at your own pace, and with absolutely no need to share unless you want. No previous writing experience is necessary.
Many of the exercises are based on the acclaimed Journal to the Self course, devised by Kathleen Adams, director of the Center of Journal Therapy and bestselling author of the book, Journal to the Self. Sarah is one of a handful of instructors certified to teach this in the UK.
Kent Writing and Wellbeing Network
Wednesday 15th June 2.30pm-5pm
A chance for members to update each other on activities and opportunities and share skills and ideas.
Biographical notes:
Geri Chavis is a Licensed Psychologist, Certified Poetry Therapist, Poetry Therapy Mentor-Supervisor, literature professor and current President of the National Association for Poetry Therapy. Over the years, she has worked with individuals, couples and families in private practice, clinics and community settings, and her most recent book is entitled Poetry and Story Therapy: The Healing Power of Creative Expression. She can be seen talking about her book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTawF13BzGM
Sarah Salway is a former Canterbury Laureate, She has published three novels, a collection of short stories, and two poetry collections. She is an acclaimed writing tutor, and has run creative writing groups for audiences ranging from PhD candidates to school excluded adolescents. Sarah was part of the tutor team on the MA in Creative Writing and Personal Development at the University of Sussex, with a special research interest of family stories. From September 2016, she will be a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and has had a serious diary writing habit since childhood.
Saturday 31 October 2015, 10am to 1pm
The Learning Lab, The Beaney
£10 per person. Advance booking essential
Victoria Field of The Poetry Practice has been working with the RSPB to encourage engagement with The Blean (one of the largest ancient woodlands in the country) through writing & reading poems. Join this workshop to explore The Blean in writing (without needing to put on your wellies!) We will also make use of the stunning British Wildlife Photography Awards 2015 exhibition for inspiration.
No previous writing experience required.
Booking essential via bookings@thepoetrypractice.co.uk
Experience Poetry Therapy
Canterbury Christ Church University – Community Arts and Education
Saturdays 24th and 31st January, Sunday 8th March 2015
All three days: £88.50
Space permitting, it may be possible to do one or two of the three days – please contact the University
Poetry Therapy is the intentional use of poetry and other forms of literature for healing and personal growth. There’s a growing interest in the ways in which reading and expressive writing can help us to find meaning in life and especially its challenges. The practice includes reading (poetry but also fiction, memoir and even film) as a way of locating our experience, and then writing in response. It also draws on other expressive arts such as collage, music and drama.
These three days will offer a chance to experience this work as a participant, and to reflect on the processes involved. It will be relevant to professionals of many kinds (eg therapists, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, librarians, teachers) who might wish to use the techniques with others. Equally, it’s possible to do the days for purely personal interest.
No formal experience of creative writing is required. Bring a notebook and something to write with.
Booking here
For more information – University:
Tel 01227 863451 (Mon-Fri 9.30am-2.30pm)
Email: education.communityarts@canterbury.ac.uk
Tutor: tel 01227 788497, victoriajfield@btconnect.com (note the j)
Experience Poetry Therapy – a Workshop for Practitioners
Friday 14th February 2014
Truro Community Library – the large room
9.30am – 1pm (prompt start at 9.30am, tea and coffee, included, available from 9am)
There is increasing evidence that engaging with literature – both reading and writing – promotes health and wellbeing. The use of therapeutic writing is increasing world-wide and, in the UK, the first systematic review of the scientific literature on therapeutic writing for Long Term Conditions is being carried out at QMU and Barts.
This half-day workshop is aimed at anyone who uses, or is intending to use, therapeutic writing in their work – whether as a primary intervention or in parallel with other treatments, therapies, or in community settings. It will offer an opportunity to reflect on practice, to engage in personal reflection through writing and to discuss the broader aspects of the use of writing in health and social care.
CPD certificates can be provided and for anyone working towards qualifications, this will contribute 1.5 hours peer experience and 1.5 hours didactic work.
Facilitator is Victoria Field who has wide experience of the use of poetry therapy in health and wellbeing. She is a regular tutor on the Ty Newydd Writing in Health and Social Care programme. She formerly co-tutored a short course in therapeutic writing with Anne Taylor at Falmouth University. Under the umbrella of The Poetry Practice, she is now a trainee Mentor-Supervisor with the US National Federation for Biblio-Poetry Therapy. She is a lay-adviser on the QMU-Barts review.
£35 per person paid in advance – £45 if invoiced
Lapidus members or Poetry Practice trainees – £30
Please email victoriajfield@btconnect.com for a registration form and to book your place, or with any queries.
Places are limited, first come, first served.
Poetry and Mindfulness – took place on
Saturday 1st June 2013
10am – 4pm
The Vinery, Trebah Gardens
£25, including admission to Trebah Gardens
Mindfulness can be defined as a state of moment-to-moment awareness in which people experience their environment without evaluation, defence, or preconceived notions. It is especially effective in reducing stress and elevating mood as well as enhancing everyday life and creativity. The reading and writing of poetry have also been shown to be effective in promoting health, both physical and emotional, and there are many overlaps with the principles of mindfulness.
This day will bring together poetry and mindfulness, in the beautiful setting of Trebah Gardens. Through close reading of poems, mindfulness practices and writing in response, the day will be a chance to reconnect with ourselves, the natural world and each other. There will be ample opportunities to experience silence, to reflect and to relax.
Victoria Field is a regular tutor on the Writing in Health and Social Care programme at Ty Newydd, and co-led a version of this day there last year with Jill Teague and Mariel Jones. She is a Certified Poetry Therapist and co-editor of three books on therapeutic writing, most recently Writing Routes (Jessica Kingsley, 2010). She is also a poet and playwright and former writer-in-residence at Truro Cathedral. Her blog is at www.poetrytherapynews.wordpress.com Her new poetry collection, The Lost Boys is due from Waterloo Press this year.
For anyone using writing therapeutically, CPD certificates can be provided. To book or for further information, email victoriajfield@btconnect.com (note the j) or call 01227 788497 or 07887 560018
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