Lapidus Events

Join us for an evening of Indian classical music paired with reflective writing prompts on the theme of joyful living. Bring a mat, blanket, pen and paper.

Ever drafted a letter in your head you never meant to send? To yourself, your younger self, someone long gone, or not yet met? Writers have long mined this private, potent form: Baldwin, Kincaid, Plath, and plenty more.
This workshop invites you to write from the inside out. We’ll start with short readings—monologues, poems, letters from the likes of the authors mentioned below—and use them to spark our own creative responses. Funny, fierce, reflective, or raw, there’s no right tone, only your own.

Week 1: Voice & Echo – Where our thoughts circle and split (Woolf, Rankine)
Week 2: Letters Never Sent – Honest, unsent missives to self and others (Baldwin, Plath)
Week 3: Soliloquy & Confession – Unfiltered speech and theatrical turns (Shakespeare, Browning)
Week 4: The Inner Chorus – Who else is in there, and what do they want? (Didion, Vuong, Davis)

Come write. No critique. Just good company, good writing time, and possibly some surprising revelations.

Writing For Wellbeing & Activism – A 2-day event

Writing has the power to uncover, heal, and transform. As we write, we shape our world and ourselves.

Inspired by this belief, Lapidus International invites you to participate in a two-day conference that explores the intersections of writing, wellbeing, and activism. This conference is an opportunity for academics, practitioners, writers, and activists from around the world to share knowledge and engage in dialogue on the role of writing in personal healing and social transformation.

This gathering aims to bring together participants from various disciplines to investigate how writing for wellbeing can also serve as a vehicle for activism. We welcome diverse perspectives that examine writing as a method of supporting mental health, fostering resilience, and creating social change.

To find out more and book tickets please click here.

A cosy, candle-lit evening of transformational writing, downstairs At The Chapel. I’ve been curating gentle but powerful writing techniques and exercises since completing doctoral studies in Creative Writing, and then practitioner training in the psychotherapy, Focusing.

Neuroscience is catching up with what writers and thinkers have always known: that writing is good for us. It calms the anxious mind, finds meaning when a personal or global narrative might seem senseless, and restores the balance of inner and outer.

Places are limited and these workshops can fill up quickly. Please email me to book and I will provide payment details.

Harnessing creativity to deliver rich, enjoyable and meaningful evaluation.
Tuesday 16th September, 23rd September and 30th September 2025, from 10am – 12.30pm.

Are you frustrated with traditional evaluation methods?
Do you feel your evaluation tools don’t reflect the creative nature of your work?
Are you finding it hard to engage participants in evaluation?
Do you get poor response rates from questionnaires?

Over the course of three interactive workshops, we will look at ways in which we can better harness creativity to generate appropriate, relevant, meaningful evaluations.

You will discover how to evaluate in ways that are enjoyable and rewarding for participants; that generate improved response rates; and deliver richer and more meaningful data.

Working collaboratively, we will co-produce creative solutions to real-world scenarios. Sharing ideas and practice, we will explore ways in which creativity can reinvigorate existing evaluation methods including questionnaires, focus groups, feedback and monitoring.

The full cost is £225 for three workshops and all handouts.

A £75 discount is available for freelancers and self-funding individuals. Please email support@janewillis.co.uk for a coupon code.

In this two-hour workshop you will explore a simple but effective 5-step transformational journaling process underpinned by research at the intersection of neuroscience and expressive writing aimed at fostering cognitive flexibility and a greater degree of self-awareness.

The workshop will include a series of short writing exercises of between approximately 5-15 minutes and small group discussions designed to help you develop creative tools for navigating challenging situations. You’ll also receive a recording following the event along with the presentation slides and a list of resources. (N.B. Only the taught part of the workshop will be recorded).

This workshop is for both beginners and those with a journalling practice alike who are interested in exploring how journaling can be a form of self-directed neuroplasticity in support of transformational growth as well as therapeutic practitioners interested in expanding their range.

For this workshop you’ll need a quiet space to write and materials to write with. As the workshop will focus on outcome rather than process, no previous writing experience is necessary and there will be no pressure to read anything out (although you can if you wish). You’ll be invited to take responsibility for your experience by going at your own pace and working with the material at a level that feels right for you.

Here’s what some recent participants have said about their workshop experience:

‘I really enjoyed Rachel’s workshop. Rachel has so much enthusiasm. I really enjoyed the exercises that we did and what I gained from it.’

‘I really enjoyed the workshop and had an interesting process. Then I had a deep sleep and a very vivid dream in which I felt able to touch in with some unresolved grief. Quite unexpected and very welcome and I wanted to share that with you and say thank you.’

‘I enjoyed the workshop and felt it was very helpful in navigating a challenging situation.’

‘I went to a really powerful introductory workshop on Transformative Journalling led by the generous Dr Rachel Newsome. As part of the workshop, Rachel invited us to enter a dialogue with our ‘inner wise elder’ and I found this exercise so powerful – connecting with this notion of my ancestral wisdom really enabled me to offer validation to myself on something I’d been really struggling with and had previously looked for external validation on.’

About Dr Rachel Newsome

I’m a Dr of depth writing & creative guide with a Jungian arts-based PhD in creative writing based in a former mill town nestled in the West Yorkshire moors.In past lives I’ve been a journalist, an editor of arts & culture magazine Dazed & Confused and a lecturer in the creative arts, respectively. I now run a programme of depth-writing workshops, courses and retreats grounded in Jungian psychology and cognitive neuroscience aimed at inspiring the creative self in everyone. I’m a Seed Talks expert speaker, serve on the Editorial Board at the London Arts Based Research Centre and am co-Editor of forthcoming Routledge publication, The Creative Psyche: Between Self & Spirit.

https://drrachelnewsome.substack.com/

https://rachelnewsome.co.uk/

We are all born with a wild imagination. It is through this unlimited creative 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 a holistic practice underpinned by Jungian psychology, creative writing and journaling designed to facilitate creativity, foster self-discovery & facilitate transformative growth with the gentle guidance of Dr Rachel.

Fire Your Wild Imagination will include daily depth writing workshops focused on cultivating creativity through attuning to your curious inner child, your wise inner sage and the wisdom of nature. The retreat will take place at the rustic and charming historic family home of Monte da Japonica and its surrounding cork woods.

The retreat is for writers, creative & therapeutic practitioners, seekers, inner explorers and those on a journey of self-discovery who are curious about how writing & imagination can be used to support transformative growth and would like to dive deeper. The focus of the retreat will be on process, rather than outcome, and on what comes up in the writing, rather than craft and you’ll be invited to work with the material at a level that feels right for you. 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 that courses through all of us.

Cost: single & shared rooms from £495 (For individual room costs, send me an email)
Deposit: £125

About Rachel
Rachel Newsome, PhD, is an independent writer, teacher and creative guide with twenty years of experience as a former lecturer in Higher Education. She holds a Jungian arts-based doctorate in Creative Writing and delivers a programme of depth writing offerings aimed at supporting transformational growth in others. She is Co-Editor of forthcoming Routledge publication ‘The Creative Psyche: Between Matter & Spirit’ and is regular speaker for the UK public education platform Seed Talks. She is author of Depth Writing with Dr Rachel on Substack and serves on the London Arts-Based Research Centre editorial team.

We all have them—that inner murmur, mutter, monologue. Sometimes it’s wise, sometimes it’s way off. Literature is full of these inner voices, from Woolf’s fluid consciousness to Shakespeare’s solitary speakers to Baldwin’s unposted letters.

In this writing series, we tune in. Each week, we’ll read a short, vivid piece—monologue, letter, poem or fragment from the likes of the authors mentioned below—and use it as a spark for our own creative writing. Expect wordplay, unexpected turns, and the occasional flash of insight.

Week 1: Voice and Echo – Fragments, contradictions, layered selves (Woolf, Beckett, Rankine)
Week 2: Letters Never Sent – Writing to the past self, the future self, the imagined other (Baldwin, Kincaid)
Week 3: Soliloquy & Confession – Talking out loud when no one’s supposed to hear (Shakespeare, Browning, Carson)
Week 4: The Inner Chorus – Giving shape to the internal tug-of-war (Didion, Vuong, Davis)

No critique, no need to share—unless you want to. Just bring a pen, a curious mind, and your self.

Whether you’re new to Lapidus or have been a part of our community for years, we want to help you make the most of your membership. 

Members can now book a bespoke, 1:1 Zoom call with our Membership Coordinator, to discuss how we can best support you through our events, networking and other membership offers.

What can you expect from a 1:1 membership call?

Calls last 20-30 minutes and are tailored to your needs. We can cover:

• The best way to find your feet in our friendly, global community
• A personal tour of our member benefits and how you can access them
• Suggested ways for you to share your experience and offerings via our platforms
• Discussing your areas of interest and how we can support your practice
• A fresh pair of eyes to identify new opportunities for you within our community
• Any other questions you may have or ways we can welcome and include you at Lapidus International

Where helpful, Flo will send a follow-up email with relevant links and opportunities for you to peruse in your own time.

How to book

Calls are available generally on Tuesday afternoons, 2-5pm UK time, and Friday mornings, 9am-12 noon UK time.

To book, please send an initial enquiry to membership@lapidus.org.uk. Flo will then reply to arrange a date and time.

Please note that 1:1 calls are a benefit that we offer to Lapidus International members. You must be a member to book a 1:1 call, and you can join our community from as little as £3.50 per month via our Membership Hub. 

This excursion-retreat weaves together the inspirational power of strikingly beautiful locations with literary pilgrimage, lively literary discussions, and expressive writing for wellbeing.

During this 12-day UK adventure, participants will be invited to respond to stirring poems and prose pieces of English, Welsh and Scottish authors within sites associated with their life and creative work. In this program, we will travel through varied landscapes, savor restful stays in delightfully scenic surroundings, and visit historically significant places within the Cotswolds, southeast Wales, Liverpool, the Lake District, and Edinburgh. As we savor the charms and literary vibe of these places, we will enjoy numerous opportunities to amplify our sensory perceptions, experience playful creativity, gather rejuvenating memories, and gain personal insight, as we respond to stimulating writing prompts.

Registration for this trip is now open, and the final date to pay your deposit and register is December 5, 2025, but you are encouraged to register as soon as possible to hold your place in the tour. Contact Geri Chavis at ggchavis@stkate.edu to receive a detailed brochure and for answers to any questions you have. Arrangements for this trip are made by Sovereign Tourism, based in London.

Program Leadership by Geri Chavis, Founder/Convener of MN Poetry Therapy Network, Professor Emerita, St. Catherine University.

Included in the cost of the programme:

• Teaching, facilitating and preparation of literary materials by Geri Chavis,
• Accompaniment by a London-based blue-badge guide throughout the tour,
• Accommodations  at Four Star Hotels,
• Private, deluxe motorcoach for transfer and touring, handling of luggage,
• Seventeen meals including full breakfast daily, and six dinners,
• Entrance fees and activities,
• All gratuities,
• Group travel insurance,
• Assistance along the way from Sovereign Tourism, based in London.