- 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:
Other events you may like
Tuesday evenings, 7-9 pm UK time (BST) – 2nd-23rd June
Compassion Journalling uses two-pen dialogue, visual mapping, poetry, and mindfulness to help you develop a genuine relationship with your own compassionate voice – not as a performance of self-care, but as a felt, creative resource.
Drawing from Compassion Focused Therapy and self-compassion research, this four-week course offers practical tools for responding to yourself with curiosity, care, and honesty.
What You’ll Explore
Week 1 – Foundation and attuned listening Week 2 – Developing your compassionate voice Week 3 – Fierce compassion and self-nurture Week 4 – Integration and sustaining practice
What’s Included
Four live sessions via Zoom (link sent the day before the course begins)
A 58-page Compassion Journal Companion to support your practice beyond the course
Invitation to monthly Compassion Circles for graduates
What Participants Say
“I came away feeling lighter and much more aware of the need for compassion to be present in my life – for me. I also loved writing the joint pantoum with our small and lovely group.” – Alexandra Harrington
“These sessions were the best kind of disruption I have experienced in a long time. It takes someone special to be able to hold this kind of space.” – Poonam
“The way you listen and engage with us is so warm. You’re very skilled at taking what we say, honouring our truth and adapting it to suit the rest of the group, while still honouring what each person said.” – Saskia
Not sure if this course is the right fit for you now? Get in touch – kate@self-centred.com
Join us in using creative writing to explore our relationships to local rivers, at this time of ecological crisis.
In this series of 4 online workshops, participants will be invited to focus on a river of their choice and to spend time with their river in between sessions. Using playful prompts, we will weave our riverly discoveries into our words, writing to and from the perspective of our chosen rivers.
We will meet weekly on zoom, between 6 and 8 pm, on the following evenings:
Monday 8th June
Monday 15th June
Monday 22nd June
Monday 29th June
All writing levels are very welcome. There will be opportunities to share your work in the group but there is no obligation to do so. The emphasis in these workshops is not to perfect our writing practice but to use writing as a tool for expression and curiosity.
Places are limited to 8 participants. To ensure group cohesion, please be clear you are able to make all 4 session dates before purchasing a ticket.
Tickets are offered on a donation basis at a suggested value of £30 in total for all sessions. All donations will go directly to the Totnes Climate Hub.
If you have any questions please email Tamzin at hello@apple-barn.com
Tamzin is a writer and gentle activist, and she holds an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes. She is passionate about using writing as a way of being present to our ecosphere.
‘The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and the realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction’ – Rachel Carson
A friendly and supportive online space to explore, create and express yourself through words.
This is a pressure-free creative space where we use poetry, prose and images to explore, create and express the self through writing, sharing (always optional) and reflecting. No experience of writing or poetry is needed.