Writing in Health and Social Care with Victoria Field and Graham Hartill

at Ty Newydd, North Wales

Guest: Larry Butler

Monday 22nd September – Saturday 27th September 2014

Fee: £550 (single room); £460 (shared room)

This will be the seventh time Graham and I will be leading a group together at Ty Newydd.  It is always an intense week with lots of laughter and some tears.  Some participants have returned year after year – even though the course material might be the same, there are always new insights and every group creates its own special alchemy. The house, with its comfy library and views over the sea, walks in the woods and along the coast is, for me, one of the most special places in the world – arriving up the long tree-lined drive and seeing the open gate, I always feel like I’m coming home.

There is a growing body of evidence that creative writing and reading can promote better health and well-being. This course is intended as an introduction to the theory and practice of using the literary arts as an integral part of health and social care. Participants will draw on their own experience to explore the different ways writing can be used with and by patients, clients and service users and in health, educational or community settings. The writing itself may take the form of poetry, fiction, memoir, drama or creative non-fiction. This course will be of interest to writers of all kinds, medical and healthcare professionals, counsellors, therapists, social workers, librarians, academics, teachers, service users and service providers in a variety of health and therapeutic environments. It is also suitable for anyone with a personal interest in any of these fields.

Victoria Field and Graham Hartill

Graham Hartill – poet, workshop facilitator, lecturer. He studied at the Universities of Wales and Massachusetts, and has since given countless workshops and classes in the UK, USA and China. Co–founder of Lapidus, the UK–wide association for the promotion of creative writing in therapeutic contexts, Graham has worked in settings as varied as hospitals, mental health centres and with the elderly.  He is writer-in-residence at HMP and YOI Parc, one of the biggest prisons in Europe and he teaches on the MSc. course “Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes” for the Metanoia Institute.  His selected poems, Cennau’s Bell was published in 2005 and his latest book A Winged Head by Parthian Books in 2006.

More information and booking via  the Ty Newydd website here.