Lapidus Living Research Community (LLRC)

Alison Cable is a writer and creative writing facilitator working in the field of Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP). She completed an MSc at Metanoia Institute with distinction, where her research explored writing and weaving as heuristic, arts-based methods for narrative inquiry, with a focus on midlife and story.

She has served as Co-Editor and Board Member for Lapidus International and currently facilitates reading and writing groups in community and educational settings, including The Reader and the London Literary Salon. She is interested in creative writing as a reflective and exploratory practice, particularly in relation to experience, identity, and change. She is particularly interested in poetry, reading aloud, and shared reading, and in conversations about literature and how stories are told and retold.

Fiona Talkington is best known in the UK and abroad as one of the BBC’s longest serving radio presenters. From the award-winning eclectic music show ‘Late Junction’, to the BBC Proms from the Royal Albert Hall, to documentaries and talk shows, Fiona is an experienced host and producer. Her writing has covered her speciality, Norwegian music and the arts, to reviews and articles and, more recently health issues and the communication of pain. She has been awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for her services to the arts, and an honorary doctorate (DLitt) from the University of Reading. She is presenter/producer of the PAINSTORM podcast covering many aspects of living with neuropathic pain, and is currently an ambassador for the IASP (International Association for the Study of Pain), advocating for the use of the arts in global clinical research.

Fiona Hamilton recently co-translated a novella by Emma Santos who published in French on themes of feminism, mental health and living outside societal norms. Fiona was a co-founder of the Climate Choir Movement and is involved in various arts for health initiatives. She is Head of Programmes for Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes at Metanoia Institute/Middlesex University. Her writing includes a play about the power of dance and music, a poetry collaboration entitled Fractures and a chapter in the book Cornerstones (Little Toller Press, 2018) on land and landscapes, poems in Project Boast (Triarchy Press, 2018), a story in verse Bite Sized (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2014) and articles in many journals.

Emica Calogjera Rogić graduated in Croatian Language and South Slavic Philology and holds a master’s in Comparative Literature from the University of Zagreb. She has taught in Croatia and abroad, including at the Sorbonne in Paris, and now works as editor-in-chief at Naklada Ljevak. Emica is currently training to become a Certified Workshop Leader in Bibliopoetry Therapy with the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy (IFBPT). As part of her certification, she created and led workshops for over 600 teachers in Croatia, focusing on stress prevention and creativity. She was also a partner in the first European bibliopoetry therapy conference in Budapest (October 2024).

Jürgen Pieters is Professor of Literature at Ghent University (Belgium), where he coordinates the international network CHARM(Consortium of Health Humanities, Arts, Reading and Medicine). He is the author of Literature and Consolation. Fictions of Comfort (Edinburgh University Press, 2021). He is currently working on a new book about the use of literary writings in contexts of care.

Kate Poll is a writer, facilitator, and co-editor of the Lapidus Magazine and former Lapidus Board member, with a particular interest in reflective writing for wellbeing and inclusive creative practice. She draws on lived experience of neurodivergence, creative work, and carer experience, alongside involvement in stroke recovery projects, carers’ wellbeing groups, and independent living charities. Kate’s approach is shaped by community insights, health and care settings, and nonprofit work, with a focus on compassionate, relational ways of supporting self-expression and connection. Her work encourages honest reflection, practical tools, and small, sustainable adjustments that help creative and caring work stay both meaningful and doable.

Kim Etherington PhD is a professor emerita of Narrative and Life Story Research at the University of Bristol, UK, a trauma therapist, and board member for LIRIC – the Lapidus research journal.

Etherington, K. (2000). Narrative approaches to working with adult male survivors of child sexual abuse: The clients’, the counsellor’s and the researcher’s story. London: Jessica Kingley Pubs:

Jeannie Wright PhD: Lapidus International is the group of people I’ve stuck with – for decades now – unlike most other organisations, workplaces and countries! I’m on the LIRIC Editorial Board. Kim and I were joint Chair of Lapidus for a while and joint Research Director of Lapidus International for even longer. Finding one of Kim’s books 25 years ago enabled me to finish some research I was just starting.

Wright, J. (2018) Reflective writing in counselling and psychotherapy 2nd ED. Los Angeles: SAGE. 

Dr. Ineke Duit is a boardroom specialist, serving as a trainer, consultant, and executive coach. She assists leaders and management teams in navigating complex organizational transitions, with a focus ongovernance, culture, and organizational change.

Her recent academic work, culminating in the PhD thesis Coming to Voice, spurred her deep passion for creative writing, which has become a part of her daily routine. While completing her doctorate, she simultaneously earned a Master’s in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes.
Based on her PhD thesis, Dr Ineke Duit delivered her paper presentation ‘My pen is my vessel’ on the Creative Bridges conference 2025. She demonstrated how, by the process of writing in a variety of forms and in a timespan of some thirteen years, she eventually wrote herself a home and wrote herself home.

Her thesis ‘Exploring my feelings of shame and their impact on my coaching practice’, written for the Master’s in Executive Coaching, is published as a chapter in the 2nd edition of ‘Behind Closed Doors; Stories from the Coaching Room’ (Erik de Haan and graduates, 2016, Libri Publishing).

Drawing on this unique interdisciplinary foundation, Dr. Ineke Duit now integrates writing into her leadership programs, OD work and coaching practice. She champions writing as a powerful yet gentle tool that allows leaders to explore their inner world, deepen self-awareness, and enhance decision-making and invites them to the true art of storytelling—crucial skills for effective modern leadership.

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.

Helen Foster is a community-engaged writer, researcher, writing for wellbeing practitioner and poetry-film-maker. She is currently a Creative Writing Associate at the Centre for Empathic Healthcare at the University of Leicester Medical School where she is working on a poetry film project about menopause.

Helen has been fortunate to work with a range of creative organisations and community agencies, including Writing East Midlands, Shine Lincolnshire and Old Bird Theatre Company, designing and delivering writing for wellbeing programmes for diverse audiences, including carers, people living with mental health challenges, people experiencing isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and women living without children. Helen is a writer in residence for CILIP, the Chartered Institute for Librarians and Information Professionals.

Helen holds a PhD in Creative Writing and her latest co-authored book, Arts for Health: Creative Writing, is out now with Emerald Press.

Lauren Metcalfe is a counsellor and psychotherapist, who has also recently embarked on the next chapter of her career as a lecturer and research supervisor.  With a background in Linguistics and Phonetics, she has always been fascinated by the power of language, the way we can speak, think and write ourselves into existence, and how words shape and reflect our worlds. Her MSc research took the form of an autoethnographic exploration of mixed-race identity—a journey of in-betweenness, otherness and belonging.

Anna Shevchuk (pseudonym: Anna Liudnova) is a writer, folklorist, art critic, performer, and volunteer. She is studying to be a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator with the International Federation for Biblio-Poetry Therapy, and is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Poetry Therapy. She is an expert in the field of cultural and creative industries at the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Ukrainian Book Institute. She is the founder of the Folklore Studio “Vytoky” (“Roots”) for kids, teenagers and adults and a facilitator of the research project at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. She volunteers with military personnel, veterans, and their families. 

Dominique De-Light is an author, PhD researcher, arts and health consultant and creativity and wellbeing coach. Co-founder of Creative Future, an arts charity supporting underrepresented artists and writers, she established the Creative Future Writers’ Awards. She has over twenty years’ experience of working creatively with people with complex needs. Along with training arts and health professionals, coaching creatives to CEOs, she is a recipient of Anglia Ruskin University’s VC’s PhD Scholarship, studying the therapeutic impact of community creative writing programmes, with a focus on underrepresented groups and effective evaluation for writing for wellbeing programmes.

She gained her MA in Creative Writing from UEA, has previously been a professional mentor for Lapidus, and has articles published in Writing Works, 2006 , and Writing Routes, 2011, both edited by Gillie Bolton, Victoria Field and Kate Thompson. She is the facilitator for the Brighton and Hove Arts and Health Network and is an Associate member of the Centre for Arts and Wellbeing, University of Brighton and the Cambridge Writing Centre.

How effective is embedding the Morning Pages writing habit in boosting writing output, stimulating imagination, promoting writing growth, and influencing overall writing development?

My commitment involved writing three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts every morning for six months.

During this process, I aimed to answer the following questions and explore other writers who have used this model:

1. What sets morning pages apart from other expressive writing methods & how does incorporating morning pages contribute to a writer’s growth?
2. Does our approach to habits affect the consistency and, thus, the guidelines for Morning Pages, ultimately impacting success?
3. Is it plausible that numerous writers opt for journalling and incorporate morning pages to enhance their creative writing expression?

I would love to share my journey & findings from this now never-ending habit.

“Wanderings and Wonderings: some thoughts about what curiosity with our writing practices might be ‘doing’ or ‘becoming’” with Sue Spencer

For many years I have been grappling with an unease with the oft expressed dichotomy between research and practice – I see no reason why learning from my practice should not be valued knowledge. Recent stumbles into the world of research-creation have started illuminating a clearer direction of inquiry formed in relation to how I articulate what I am trying to do in my writing and art practice.

In this session I will share my excursions into posthuman feminism and my commitment to making connections that will enhance our capabilities to respond well to participants, be sensitive to the context of our work and our capacities to “think through” what we are doing and why.

This session is designed to be interactive, generative and conversational. I will offer short writing exercises that respond to some question setting from a range of scholars.

Please bring along poems/literature that inspire you and sheets of paper to write on. It is anticipated that this might be the start of mapping your insights and articulating core values. It is some further thoughts following my previous offering in October 2023 – come along to share thoughts or ask questions.

Mark Smalley is a former BBC Radio 4 producer of features and documentaries, now freelance, who completed an MSc in CWTP at Metanoia in 2023, an effective corrective to uninhibited egos in the media sector.

His research folded together a response to the climate and nature polycrises and the use of creative writing with climate activists, accessing deep time through an engagement with the lithosphere – the world of rocks seldom that far beneath our feet.

With an abiding love of rocks and landscape, the series of BBC Radio 3 talks he edited by 20 contemporary poets and writers entitled ‘Cornerstones‘ is published by Little Toller. His first poetry pamphlet, ‘Touchstone’, which is emerging out of his research project, is in preparation.

Jon Sayers is a poet, coach and journal facilitator based in London. His poems have been published in leading UK magazines and his radio play, A World Full of Weeping, a supernatural thriller whose plot revolves around a poem by WB Yeats, was twice broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and was a Radio Times Pick of the Week. With Reinekke Lengelle and Geri Chavis, he co-wrote the chapter on Poetry Therapy for Writing for Wellbeing: Research, Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2023).

As a journal facilitator, using a biblio/poetry therapy model, Jon has worked with, among others, older teens moving out of the care system, older women carers, church communities, newly qualified life coaches, members of the British Guild of Travel Writers, and inmates of His Majesty’s Pentonville prison.

He has trained extensively with the Therapeutic Writing Institute of Denver, Colorado. Jon draws on a range of psychological models in his facilitation work, with a particular interest in the ideas of Carl Jung, and has delivered Jungian themed writing workshops in the UK and USA.

Kate Fox Robinson has had a squiggly career to date encompassing youth and community work, sibling support work in a children’s hospice, chaplaincy and bereavement work in mental health services & acute hospitals, learning disability support work and student support in further and higher education. These roles have spanned the charity, healthcare and education sectors.

Kate’s Masters research explored spiritual care for children with complex needs and their families throughout palliative care. Writing has been a common thread across her work and her approach has adapted accordingly to the role and setting.

Kate started to write in March 2020 and her blog footnotesonlife.co.uk chronicles impact of the pandemic and beyond. Latterly, Kate has begun to engage in writers groups, poetry events and making connections and is enjoying discovering the breadth of work that is taking place.

Hayley Frances is a poet from Birmingham who uses poetry as a therapeutic medium. Her first collection Administer the Laughing Gas is out with VERVE in September 2024, and she is the founder of OdeHeart, a multi-poetry movement encouraging self-authorship for creativity, awareness, strength and healing.

Dr Stephanie Dale is a researcher and writing program developer with a background in newspaper journalism. In 2014 she founded The Write Road, a wellbeing initiative that pioneered writing programs in rural and remote Australia. In 2023, on completion of her PhD, Steph founded the International Wellbeing-through-writing Institute, the purpose of which is further work in the field in mainstream policy and practice: www.iwwi.com.au