Welcome to Lapidus International
The Words and Writing For Wellbeing Community
Lapidus International is a membership organisation open to everyone with an interest in words for wellbeing.
We support and champion words and writing for wellbeing through development opportunities, exclusive member events, access to the latest research, and more.
We offer a supportive network to enhance both personal and professional wellbeing practice.
What Is Words and Writing For Wellbeing?
Words and writing for wellbeing is the use of words to explore thoughts, express emotions, and support personal growth. It’s not about perfect grammar or literary skill, it’s about connecting with yourself through journalling, poetry, storytelling, or reflective writing. Whether used in a group setting or privately, writing can be a powerful tool to process experiences, build resilience, and find clarity.
At Lapidus, we celebrate writing in all its forms as a gentle, creative way to nurture emotional, mental, and social wellbeing. Find out more in our handy guide to writing for wellbeing.
Upcoming Events
Take a mindful pause in your week and join us for Write Here, Right Now — a calm, supportive online space for Lapidus members to come together and write.
Hosted once a month on a Wednesday lunchtime, this hour-long session offers a simple structure: a warm welcome from a Lapidus facilitator, a chance to briefly connect with fellow members, and then uninterrupted self-directed writing time. Whether you’re journalling, reflecting, or working on a creative project, writing in the quiet company of others can bring focus, motivation, and a sense of shared purpose.
We meet on Zoom. No pressure, no prompts — just you, your words, and a community that understands the power of writing for wellbeing.
Event details
This edition of Write Here, Right Now takes place on Wednesday 13th May 2026, from 1pm –2pm BST (UK time).
The facilitator will be Gina Beach.
Please send any questions ahead of the event to membership@lapidus.org.uk (responses on Tuesdays & Fridays).
Joining the event
There is no need to reserve your space — simply turn up on the day using the Zoom link below:
Joining link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89853372151
Meeting ID: 898 5337 2151
We are all born with a wild imagination. It is through this unlimited resource that we can access the unconscious, connect with our intuition, develop a greater degree of self-awareness and expand our sense of possibility. Fire Your Wild Imagination will be a chance to explore this vast inner superpower through the Jungian-inspired process of depth writing – a transformational practice aimed at nurturing depth of connection with self and world via the depths of the creative psyche. It will take place the beautiful cork woods of Portugal’s Alentejo region under the gentle guidance of Dr Rachel Newsome.
Who is Fire Your Wild Imagination for?
The focus of Fire Your Wild Imagination is on process, rather than outcome, and on what comes up in the writing, rather than craft. This retreat is for writers, creative & therapeutic practitioners and those on a journey of self-discovery who are curious about how writing & imagination can be used to support transformative growth and who are comfortable with diving deeper.
What will we be doing?
There will be two daily writing workshops on each of the three full days of the retreat. The morning workshops will be a chance to fire your wild imagination through attuning to your curious inner child, your sage inner guide and the wisdom of nature. In the afternoon you’ll have plenty free time to explore the cork woods or relax by the infinity pool. The day will finish with a reflective workshop focused on exploring your experiences of the morning session and any insights arising from it more deeply. Both sessions will include guided writing prompts as well as sharing and discussion.
A note about care
Throughout the retreat you’ll be invited to take responsibility for your experience by taking from the material what you need and working with it at a level that feels right for you. You’ll also be invited to practice CARE – confidentiality, attention, respect & empathy – with others. For those who have a writing or other creative practice, depth-writing can be used as an adjacent activity to support, deepen and expand your projects. Wherever you are at, this retreat is a chance to fire the creative, healing superpower of the wild imagination which courses through all of us.
Cost (includes accommodation, vegetarian meals & writing workshops)
Luxury room single use: 1,000 Euros
Luxury room sharing: 850 Euros pp
Budget room single use: 650 Euros
Budget room sharing: 550 Euros pp
Deposit: 150 Euros
*The deposit is refundable up to May 1st 2026. Outstanding payments are due by July 31st 2026.
Getting there by plane: The nearest airport to Monte da Japonica is Lisbon. A pick can be arranged from the airport direct to Monte da Japonica for 50 Euros per person. Alternatively, you can get the bus to the nearest town of Redondo or a train to the nearest city of Evora. There is a small charge for a pick up from Evora. Pick up from Redondo is free.
About Dr Rachel Newsome
I’m a writer, speaker & creative guide with Jungian arts-based PhD in writing-as-inner-work. I have a background in both the media and academia and now run a programme of depth writing courses and workshops throughout the year aimed at nurturing depth of connection with our deep creative self. I’m a Seed Talks expert speaker, serve on the Editorial Team of the London Arts-Based Research Centre and am co-Editor of forthcoming Routledge publication The Creative Psyche: Between Self & Spirit. I write about my travels between worlds on my Substack, Dreaming Awake. And, as you can probably tell, I love to dive deep.
https://rachelnewsome.co.uk/
https://drrachelnewsome.substack.com/
In this 60-minute reflective writing workshop, we explore how personal experience — especially experiences of loss, transition, and emotional strain — can be approached through metaphor.
Rather than writing directly about “what happened,” participants will experiment with writing around their experience: through objects, spaces, textures, and embodied imagery.
Grounded in principles of therapeutic and expressive writing, this session offers a contained, psychologically informed space for reflection. It is not therapy, but it invites depth, curiosity, and careful listening to what language makes possible.
Open to writers of all levels. No prior writing experience required.
Discover how poetry can become a powerful tool for healing, insight, and self-expression. This 5-week online course combines theory with guided writing practices to help you explore your story through imagery, metaphor, and creative language; no poetry experience needed!
Each week you’ll receive evidence-based readings and simple writing invitations to explore in your own time, plus live sessions where we write, reflect, and connect in a supportive space. Drawing on therapeutic writing research and the work of leaders such as Mazza, Pennebaker, McAdams, and Chavis, the course shows how poetry can support emotional well-being, identity exploration, and personal growth.
You’ll experiment with poetic forms that help you reconnect with your body, reframe old narratives, and imagine new possibilities for your future. By the end, you’ll have a sustainable expressive writing practice and a deeper understanding of how poetry can support healing, creativity, and self-knowledge.
Who it’s for: anyone curious about therapeutic writing or poetry as a therapeutic tool, new or experienced writers, and those seeking a creative, reflective space for personal insight.
Book directly here: https://buy.stripe.com/7sY9AS3620aYckA2UwenS07
Check out the full program: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nn5N9RQqPycapNthFVMHW0jaBhApn7JGpFr1U3hJgVI/edit?usp=sharing
Find more about my training, experience and facilitation: https://mariaortegagarcia.com
Concession rate: £89 — https://buy.stripe.com/5kQbJ0cGC3na3O40MoenS08
Moving Poems: making poetry films as a creative wellbeing practice
This presentation introduces poetry film as an expanded writing-for-wellbeing practice. Blending spoken word, moving image, sound and visual metaphor, poetry film offers a powerful methodology for meaning-making, emotional processing and reclaiming voice during times of transition. By bringing together text, image and sound, poetry film becomes more than an art form: it becomes a relational and restorative practice for navigating change.
My current poetry film work explores lived experiences of menopause and considers the poetry film form as a space for emotional processing and catharsis. Through the lens of narrative medicine, I will explore my developing creative journey in working with this form, shaping lived experience into poetic language and finding sensory responses through images and sounds.
I will consider how the poetry film form spans the personal and the public and how the very personal act of creating a poetry film can function as a creative mediated confession, whilst creating a gentle distance from difficult material through metaphor and image. I’ll also suggest how watching the outputs of poetry film can be seen as a reflective act.
The session also invites you to experiment with short writing prompts and simple visual thinking exercises, discovering how metaphor, aesthetic distance and sensory awareness can create safe yet transformative ways to engage with our lived experiences.
About Helen Foster
I am a community-engaged writer, researcher, writing for wellbeing practitioner and poetry-film-maker. I am currently a Creative Writing Associate at the Centre for Empathic Healthcare at the University of Leicester Medical School where I am working on a poetry film project about menopause.
I have been fortunate to work with a range of creative organisations and community agencies, including Writing East Midlands, Shine Lincolnshire and Old Bird Theatre Company, designing and delivering writing for wellbeing programmes for diverse audiences, including carers, people living with mental health challenges, people experiencing isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and women living without children. I am a writer in residence for CILIP, the Chartered Institute for Librarians and Information Professionals.
I hold a PhD in Creative Writing and my latest co-authored book, Arts for Health: Creative Writing, is out now with Emerald Press.
Join the event
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84489829568
Meeting ID: 844 8982 9568
This event will be recorded. The recording will be available for a limited time after the live event. Please allow a couple of working days for us to process and upload the recording after the live event.
For questions before or after the day of the event, please contact Flo on membership@lapidus.org.uk (responses on Tuesdays and Fridays). For queries on the day of the event, please contact mel@write4word.org.
About the Lapidus Living Research Community
The Lapidus Living Research Community (LLRC) meets on the first Saturday of every month via Zoom to discuss all things research, with a focus on qualitative arts-based research practices, theory and methods.
All Lapidus members are welcome, regardless of research experience. LLRC events are free. Use the Zoom link above to access the event.
If your body could speak, what would it say? Have you ever had a conversation with it on the page?
In this 2-hour workshop, we’ll explore ways to connect with our bodies and hear their voices through writing. Kate will also share learnings from her MSc research on mind-body writing and reflections on how the research still shapes her life all these years later.
As part of the workshop:
– We’ll explore activities to help us connect with our bodies through writing
– We’ll take some time for relaxation and reflection
– Kate will share her research findings, their impact and additional learnings 10 years on
You can find out more and book here: https://www.katemcbarron.co.uk/conversations-with-our-bodies/
Join Lapidus International...
…from as little as £3.50 per month.
As a Lapidus Member, you are part of a supportive, international community who believe in the power of using words to enhance and transform.
You’ll receive a monthly newsletter, get discounts on events and training, have access to our online library of Lapidus journals and more. All for as little as £3.50 per month!
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Our vision
In these times of global upheaval, where words can be debased, Lapidus International will not compromise.
We know that writing endures as a way to express suffering and joy, healing and belonging in the intersection of personal circumstances and social conditions.
Through practice, research, publishing, and partnerships, we recognise words and writing as an accessible force for wellbeing, activism and therapy.
Our membership reflects the voices of all communities, including those who have been discounted, prohibited, displaced and under-served.