Welcome to Lapidus International –The Words and Writing for Wellbeing Community

Welcome to a new venture for Lapidus; a series of blogs from where I hope we can enthuse and inform our community.  People who offer writing for wellbeing, bibliotherapy, poetry therapy, creative, expressive, and reflective writing come from so many places.  We might be therapists or counsellors, writers, journalists. As I write this I feel myself react at the pigeon-holing that this list can drive. Whatever our backgrounds we bring ourselves, our lived experience, our cultures, languages and heritages and a conviction that creative expression of words and writing, can offer personal and community insight and can have the power to heal. 

I was first recruited to Lapidus as a student at the Metanoia Institute MSc Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP).  As I was awarded my MSc late 2019/early 2020 I knew that I was going to miss the stimulus of my cohort  who had met monthly in Bristol in person, for two years. I live in West Wales and at the time I wondered how I was going to feed and maintain my curiosity to find out more about the field, what works and why. How was I to develop my practice and broaden my understanding of the CWTP world having left the academic environment? 

My professional background is in public health and health promotion, but I had also studied drama. I love theatre, music, poetry, and the natural world. I had two poetry collections published.  Alongside this I worked in the substance misuse field for almost thirty years, and for over half that time was the Director of a local alcohol and drugs advisory service.   Towards the end of my time in substance misuse I found myself taking a poetry book to work, reading a couple of poems to myself or out loud as I gazed over the rooftops of town, across to the Tywi valley. This quiet, contemplative practice set me up for the day and the challenging discussions on, for example, proving the effectiveness of our services on drinkers and drug users. Measuring client impact and outcome scores alone reduced the significance of our work; they masked the experiences of the people with whom we worked.   What place might there be for poetry and other creative arts in our work?  How could our service users’ lives be enriched with offers of illuminating words?  I left the organisation a few months later.

I have always been curious and have enjoyed reading research around any area of work that I have been involved with.  How can we not puzzle and inquire?  How can we not wonder where our practice comes from and make our own contributions to developing it?  We can learn so much by listening to each other, listening to our participants and then adjust/experiment/be safely brave in our own work. So in 2020 when Covid restricted our opportunities to travel and meet others we went online and the world opened up in so many different ways. The Lapidus Living Research Community (LLRC) is a strong and positive legacy of Covid time. The LIRIC Journal is a place where we can see our work influence practice and further research.  I have learned more about research and developed my practice so much since completing the MSc. I feel strongly that if we engage in research, especially alongside others then we have a duty to our participants to share the research either through presentation or publication. If we don’t do this, if we don’t trouble others and ourselves how will the field move forward? For those of us who are words and writing facilitators/practitioners I would like to see us bringing the threads of our life experiences, our professional backgrounds, the voices of the people with whom we work together in ways which strengthen the foundation of this work and make it relevant in a challenging world. 

I had the immense privilege in October 2024 to attend the 1st European Biblio/Poetry Therapy conference in Budapest. It was a feast of conference with presenters sharing their research,practice and perspectives on  so many aspects of the work- alongside refugees from Ukraine, the Middle East, African nations; alongside people traumatised by war; alongside people across cancer life-courses, alongside people in prison.  As I write I am humbled and energised by their conviction in the effectiveness of words and writing for wellbeing and their determination in often the most bleak of circumstances to offer their work. Let us as members of Lapidus International and  advocates for words and writing for wellbeing channel people’s grit and courage. Let us begin with words that heal, find joy and laughter and spark, positive action within ourselves and  for troubled communities.

Mel Perry – Lapidus Co-Chair