I have a background as counsellor, clinical supervisor, hypnotherapist, group facilitator, trainer and very recently performance poet!
At the moment, I am focussed on bringing ‘Kick off with a Verse’ to unpaid carers in a dementia care partnership, wherever they may be. These are facilitated supportive, relaxing and creative sessions which can be run both online and in person.

In a 90-minute session We….
• check in with other carers in a confidential space
• stretch to connect body with mind
• practice relaxation skills
• listen to a poem which is the springboard for talking about our own experiences
• find our own words to say it as it is and make a collaborative piece of writing

The intentions underpinning Kick off with a Verse are:
• Affect regulation through mindfulness/relaxation. Learning and practicing a skill useful in everyday life.
• Self-awareness: exploring early relationship patterns (attachment styles) and how they impact on the care partnership.
• Developing a social and creative network with the potential to continue meeting beyond the duration of the facilitated sessions.
• Re-connecting with creativity; using writing to tap into a part of self which is often lost under the weight and responsibility of caring.

The project came out of my experience caring for my husband who lived with dementia. I wrote to get stuff off my chest; stuff which became the poems used to kick off with.

For the past 18 months, I have been busy networking UK-wide with dementia support organizations, professionals in the field, residential care homes and unpaid carers themselves, to spread the word about this facilitated online/in-person resource. This is the progress to date:
• Two free weekly sessions ran online for 12 months from Sept 2024 – July 2025, with participants signing in from across the UK. These re-commenced in January 2026, and will run until the summer.
• Following a successful pilot in 2024, Park Theatre received funding from Islington Council and the Cripplegate Foundation to host Kick off with a Verse for a year. The in-person sessions, which began in September 2025, are free for residents of the London boroughs of Islington and Haringey.
They run weekly on a Wednesday morning in parallel with Singing in Time, a singing group for those living with dementia. Writing from Kick off with a Verse participants was set to music by the singing group facilitator. The end-of-term session when writers hear their words sung, was truly joyful and so validating.
• Kick off with a Verse has been adapted to suit both members of the care partnership and has run successfully at Memory Cafés.
• The session structure works effectively with different client groups. Choosing a suitable poem to kick off with is all that is needed. In the summer of 2025 Kick off with a Verse was part of my local library Loving Life initiative, a creative health project for older adults.

I have am revising the handbook which will provide the material and guidance needed for others to facilitate sessions. Once the handbook is out there, I hope to run workshops to support those taking the plunge.