- Event Date: 14/12/2025
Burning Desire: Writing and Somatics for the Days Between the Years
Event Details
- 14:00
- Online via Zoom
- From £25
Event Description
The Rauhnächte — the “rough nights” between the years — are traditionally a time for reflection, dreaming, and listening more closely to what stirs inside us. One of the most beautiful rituals of this season is to write 13 intentions for the coming year, burn one each night for 12 successive nights, and leave the final wish as the one you take responsibility for.
But choosing those wishes can be surprisingly difficult.
This workshop offers a series of somatic explorations and guided writing prompts to help you clarify what you truly want, uncover the inner obstacles that make wanting complicated, and name your truest and deepest intentions for your life right now — emotional, practical, intimate, wild, or quiet.
What you can expect:
– Writing prompts that explore why wanting is often tangled up with fear, conditioning, or habits
– Somatic practices to identify patterns, soften resistance, and listen to the body
– A gentle, creative process to generate 13 intentions for the coming year
– A deeper understanding of what you long for, and why
– A meaningful, personal ritual to carry into the sacred nights of winter
This workshop is for anyone who wants to enter the new year with more presence, self-permission, and inner alignment—and who feels drawn to a ritual that is both tender and quietly magical.
Led by Elaine Konopka, somatic practitioner, writer, and editor. She is the founder of The Attentive Body online and in Paris, where she teaches body awareness to help people live healthier, more intense lives. An avid believer in the power of the written word, she has been facilitating writing workshops for over a decade.
Sunday, December 14th, 2 – 4 pm UK time
Standard rate: 25 €
Supporter rate: 30 €
Please Note:
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About the Presenter
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Joining details
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86850202455
Meeting ID: 868 5020 2455
This session will be recorded and available on catch-up for a limited time. Please check back here a couple of days after the event for access to the recording.
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.
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Presenter: Elisabeth Winkler
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This workshop focuses on poetic autoethnography (Hanauer, 2010 – 2022) as a research tool, using poetry’s particular qualities to respond to historic poems. It also draws on narrative therapy to incorporate “the lost relationship” with the self and, in doing so, arrive at a new understanding (White, 1988).
The session will be about 65 minutes, and includes time for questions, comments and creative writing. Please bring a fragment of your creative writing or poetry or a photograph from the past (which could be yesterday!) for a short written exercise.
Joining details
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81765344967
Meeting ID: 817 6534 4967
This session will be recorded and available on catch-up for a limited time. The recording will be added to this page a couple of days after the event. Please check back here from Tuesday 6th January for access to the recording.
About Elisabeth Winkler
Elisabeth Winkler has earned her living with words as a freelance journalist (published in all the broadsheets) and charity communications. A recent MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes enabled an exploration into her lived experience of depersonalisation and recovery. She is now a peer facilitator for the UK charity for depersonalisation and derealisation, Unreal, and writing about mental health.
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.
An invitation to writers of all levels (beginners are as welcome as the more experienced) — to loosen the ligaments, put perfection aside, and write for the quiet joy of discovery; to share a space where words unfold boldly, imperfectly, and in response to curiosity.
A block of three months offers a gentle rhythm of practice: a facilitated Anchor Session followed later in the month by a companion Open Writing Session, where you can return to your work, deepen the ideas sparked in the workshop, and write alongside others in quiet company.
How it works
Anchor Session (first Tuesday of each month, 5.00-7.00 pm, UK time):
A guided workshop exploring a theme, text, or prompt through discussion, short exercises and optional sharing. These sessions provide inspiration and direction for your writing practice.
Open Writing Session (third Tuesday of each month, 5:00–6:30 pm, UK time):
A lightly held, communal writing space in which you can develop your ideas, try new forms, or simply write in the company of others. Optional check-in and sharing at the end.
Block Pass: £105 for three months (includes three Anchor Sessions and three companion Open Writing Sessions). This block encourages continuity and engagement, with sessions scheduled monthly to help you build a routine.
Single Sessions: please enquire.
Block 1: January – March 2026
Anchor: 6 January | 3 February | 3 March
Open: 20 January | 17 February | 17 March