- Event Date: 07/06/2026
The Shape of What We Carry: Metaphors in writing for wellbeing
Event Details
- 14:30
- Online via GoogleMeet
- From £0
Event Description
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.”
This is a reflective group workshop facilitated by Dr. Ananya Mahapatra (M.D Psychiatry).
Event details:
Online Via GoogleMeet
Date: June 7th 2026
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm (BST) / 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (IST)
Ananya is a psychiatrist from New Delhi and a writer. Her interest lies in exploration of the inner life through therapeutic reading and writing practices. Her short fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including Readomania, Kitaab International, USAWA Literary Magazine, Quillmark Magazine, The Best Asian Short Stories 2018, the Bristol Short Story Prize 2022, The Deodar Literary Prize 2024, and The Hemlock Magazine.
Please Note:
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This standalone workshop is an invitation to accept and welcome all parts of yourself – the valued parts, the neutral parts, and the parts you find most challenging.
Informed by Internal Family Systems and Compassion Focused Therapy, we’ll move through two practices together. First, a guided lovingkindness meditation – cultivating warmth towards different aspects of yourself. Then, compassionate two-pen dialogue – tuning in to what your body needs, and offering space to the parts that feel loud through pain or discomfort, or that have quietly grown silent.
An invitation to soften, and let your embodied wisdom guide you.
You can find out more about Self-Centred, my Substack publication here: https://katepoll.substack.com/
If you are not yet a subscriber, you’re still very welcome to join. There is a paid option through my website (katepoll.co.uk) but, given you can subscribe for free, you might choose to sign up here: https://katepoll.substack.com/subscribe
Take time to pause and create – giving voice to parts of yourself that often get overlooked, and building self-trust in yourself and your creative process.
Sessions work at your pace – with multiple ways in through writing, image, sound, and movement. There is also the option to include Emotional Freedom Technique and guided visualisations.
Nurturing and shaped entirely around your needs and interests.
Currently available fortnightly on Tuesday mornings, or weekly on Thursdays and Fridays – online via Zoom.
What? One-and-half hours to reflect and recharge.
Creative writing prompts assist another part of the self to come on stream, dreaming and noticing, seeing a bigger picture.
When? Saturday 9 May 2026 10.00 – 11.30am
Where? Online – Zoom link sent when you sign-up.
How much? £15.00
One ticket reserved for pay-what-you-can-afford – get in touch asap
Small group, limited spaces.
What is therapeutic writing?
No creative writing experience necessary. It is not about grammar, spelling or the perfect sentence.
It is about expressing the self (whoever the self is at that moment) through creative writing in an encouraging and supportive environment.
We may share our writing. And, there is no obligation to share. Everything is confidential.
I offer creative writing prompts and a poem to facilitate:
– Reflection
– Grounding in the moment
– Writing freely.
Contact Elisabeth for how to join at https://elisabethwinkler.com/contact/
Look forward to writing with you!