There are a lot of events going on at the moment, run both by ourselves and our members. We don't want you to miss out, so please find below a summary of the events happening over the next few months. We'll continue to update it every time someone sends in something new! (All times are in UK time unless otherwise specified)
Are you running an event? Let us know by emailing the details to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This event has been specially requested by Lapidus for members and non-members to learn about how writing group facilitators and other arts-based practitioners can work with GPs to provide opportunities for people who want to benefit their health and wellbeing.
The session will be presented by Dr Emma Drew who is the Director of the Robin Hood Health Foundation, a social prescribing charity and home of the Hera arts & health project.
Emma’s background is in literary, arts/health & business development work on behalf of clients, who include professional writers, publishers, large & small charities/social enterprises, and local government.
She is the author of The Whole Person Recovery Handbook (2015, Sheldon Press); former MD of the Women's Press; creator of the Arts Council funded Read For Your Life conference at Brighton Festival Fringe in 2014, a networking & learning event for creative health professionals exploring the field of reading for wellbeing; creative writing tutor for service users; arts & health webinar facilitator for medical students at Brighton & Sussex Medical School.
Emma has a BA (Hons) in English from Cambridge and an MSc in Medical Humanities from King's College London.
Emma invites you to shape this session to be what you want it to be. There will be opportunities for questions and to explore:
The theme for the workshops was inspired by a poem written by Deborah Cooper.
The workshops will take place online, in a closed group on Zoom.
We will use carefully selected poems as a springboard for writing, reflection and conversations.
The workshops are for anyone who wants additional resources, in these unsettling times. It is for those who enjoy creativity, journalling, writing for personal or professional development.
No prior knowledge of poetry or expressive writing is required; you simply need to be willing to share, reflect and experiment with words in a supportive environment.
Charmaine Pollard is an experienced poetry therapist, counsellor, and life coach with a passion for leading therapeutic writing workshops to promote health and well-being. She is author of Writing for Resilience, a workbook that harnesses the power of writing to help boost creativity and self-expression, whilst strengthening resilience.
In this series of workshops you will:
- practice reading and writing with the attention and devotion of a Carthusian monastic, from the heart of your everyday secular reality, and in a way that sharpens your attention to that reality
- take the time to slow down and interact with beloved texts that are “sacred” to you – poems, excerpts of fiction or non-fiction, anything that moves you – and be exposed to new inspirational writing (including your own)
- move towards a state of openness in which you can receive deep meaning from the written word – meaning you can then take into your life like a light, like a shield, like a hand to hold
In these times of AI and chatbots, I feel more than ever a desire to be in the presence of the written word, to honor it, celebrate it, really see it, and listen for what it holds for me. If you share this desire, I would love for you to join me.
Date: Wednesday 27th March
Time: 7pm – 9pm UK time
Where: Online
Cost: £25
Description: Maybe the idea of writing and journaling appeals, but you’re not sure how to get started?
Perhaps you have started a journal, but are running out of steam?
Or you might be a seasoned journal writer looking for support and inspiration?
Whether you are an experienced writer or have never written before, Jane Willis’ Reflective Journal sessions are safe, accessible monthly workshops that will introduce you to a range of ways of keeping a reflective journal.
Each month we will unpack and experiment with a different way into writing. This March, playing with ideas of concealing and revealing, we will explore ways of redacting or blocking out found text to create new writing; as well as finding freedom in our own words by obscuring them to others.
Booking details: https://www.janewillis.co.uk/reflective-journal
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Date: Saturdays 16th March; 20th April; 15th June; 20th July; 21st September; 19th October; 16th November (3rd Saturday of the month; no class in May or August)
Time: 10–11.30 am
Where: Online via Zoom
Cost: £10 per session (£5 if money is tight; free for anyone on benefits) payable by bank transfer
Description: We will use images, photos, poems, prose and ordinary things around us as a stimulus for writing.
This is an opportunity for self expression, self exploration, self care, finding your voice, fun, getting creative… whatever! All in the safe space of the group. No need to commit to coming every month. You can come to just one session, or them all, or something in between. No previous experience necessary and no one has to share anything they have written. There will be an opportunity to share for those that want to.
With Sue Walters, a Creative Writing for Wellbeing practitioner, writer and researcher.
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Date: Saturday 13th April 2024
Time: 9.45am-12.30pm
Where: Online via Zoom
Cost: £18 / £29.50
Description: Read Write Express offers workshops for adults who wish to explore writing as a means of improving wellbeing, gaining confidence and moving forward with life.
Booking details: Eventbrite: Writing For Wellbeing And Self-Awareness - Discovering tickets
More information: read-write-express.blogspot.com
Deadline : Monday 15th April 2024
Description: Our 2-day international conference aims to provide the space and time for encounters and exchange, in the hope of creating a tradition and encouraging other European colleagues to organise a similar professional events in the future.
We invite biblio/poetry therapy practitioners to register and participate in the October conference with a 30-minute presentation or a 1.5-hour workshop. The working language of the conference will be English. For maximum personal experience and meetings, the conference will be held in person only, no streaming, no online participation.
The following topics and themes are welcome:
- experiences and challenges of biblio/poetry therapy services, individual and group sessions for different target groups (both clinical and non-clinical settings)
- education and trainings, national standards in biblio/poetry therapy
- foundation, history and activities of national associations for biblio/poetry therapy
Attendees not intending to register as a presenter or as a workshop facilitator will have the opportunity to register later, when the schedule is finalised.
Information and registration: poetrytherapy.eu
Date : 19th April 2024
Time: 12.45pm- 14:15
Where : Online (as part of the wider festival)
Cost: Varies depending on membership options
Description: As coaches, we know the power of writing down our goals and actions. Writing can take us even further when we add a creative tool like poetry. Creativity allows us to go deeper as we strive to achieve results – whether for ourselves or our clients. It can circumvent the conscious mind and lead us into the rich, inner world of the unconscious.
In this interactive workshop, you will experience poetry as a coaching tool in action. Through the process of reading a poem, writing in response and then reflecting, we can gain a clearer understanding of ourselves and our aspirations. From there, we can set realistic goals, work towards them enthusiastically, and turn our dreams into reality.
No previous experience with this approach is required. You will be guided step-by-step, supported by theory, through various writing techniques and reflection activities designed to support the coaching process.
Information and registration: https://accreativecoachingfest.com/register/
Date: Tuesday 7th to Thursday 9th May 2024
Where: Noddfa Centre, based in the foothills of Snowdonia on the coast of North Wales.
Cost: £475
Description:
Booking details: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
An invitation to explore the fundamental need as well as the exquisite desires to belong, the urge to be greater than ourselves. My own nomadic experiences through the extended family in childhood and life in different continents as an adult have intrigued me and my own sense of belonging. We will open with a simple body awareness to help us step into embodied experiences of writing. We will use poems, aspects of the natural world as well as recollections of our own family dynamics around the table (or table ‘events’ if this did not form part of upbringing). The writing prompts will hopefully help us to gently explore our experiences of belonging, help us into a reflective process and the chance to create narratives in various forms. There will be small group activities to share the process of writing (or the writing itself if you feel moved to).
This session will be facilitated by Liz Annable, CWTP practitioner, person centred counsellor and supervisor.
Gentle explorations into the idea of an unspoken promise around the role of mother. What society may anticipate a mother to be. What we may ‘expect’ from mothers – or if you identify as mother – from self. We will engage with the unspoken assumptions and expectations for this role largely via poem and from that which we create on the day.
Returning by popular enquiry.
This session will be facilitated by Liz Annable, CWTP practitioner, person centred counsellor and supervisor.
By accepting you will be accessing a service provided by a third-party external to https://lapidus.org.uk/