In-Person Writing Workshops for Therapists – Winter: Contemplation
Exploring the creative cycle through the four seasons
NOW CLOSED
Saturday 4 February 2023
With Stella Duffy and Chris Cleave
- Saturday 20 May 2023: Spring: Invention, New Ideas
- Saturday 15 July 2023: Summer: Bringing to Fruition
- Saturday 30 September 2023: Autumn: Harvesting and Discernment
CPD Credits: 5.5 hours
- Attend in person at Confer’s premises
- Maximum participants: 50
- Booking close at 9:00am GMT Wednesday 1 February
- This session will not be recorded
This series of seasonal workshops is an invitation to deepen your relationship with writing, in your therapy practice and in your life.
READ MORE...Each day-long session will help you to take meaningful steps towards writing fluently and confidently. Participants are welcome to attend some or all of the series.
Therapists may do narrative work every day in the consulting room, but writing itself can seem daunting; hard to start, hard to finish, and worryingly like putting ourselves up for investigation. We overcome this state through understanding; each workshop will examine a different stage of the writing process, mapping it to the appropriate season and exploring what this seasonal energy can teach us about how to write.
Like the seasons, creativity is cyclical: listening within, ideas blooming, projects maturing or coming to nothing – and then we start again. Along the way we contend with the opposing forces that govern us, as they shift throughout the cycle. Recognising these shifting tensions can free us as writers and enrich our work as therapists.
Following their inaugural writing workshop for Confer, Stella Duffy and Chris Cleave – both therapists, writers and writing mentors – return with this uniquely created series. These workshops aim to replenish the creativity and fluent communication that drive a therapist’s work throughout the year.
Bring pen, paper, and yourself.
FULL PROGRAMME
Saturday 4 February 2023
Winter: Contemplation
10.00 GMT
Registration and Refreshments
10.30
Introductions
10.35
Welcome & warm up
A quick look at the structure of this inclusive and enjoyable day-long workshop for therapists of all levels of writing experience, from novices to novelists. We will begin with some simple warmup exercises to ease us into writing work.
11.00
Experiential writing exercises & feedback
Two engaging exercises designed to open space for both contemplation and action, for attending to the season and the time, to where we are now and to how we are now.
12:00
Break
A longer break to offer a chance to connect with others in the group.
12.30
Experiential writing exercises & feedback
Expanding our horizon to include the past and future of our life and work, we look at techniques to stir, awaken and challenge our writing. We will work individually and in small groups to explore the impact of a variety of writing forms and possibilities.
13.30
Lunch
14.30
Regroup
A quiet moment to consider our dreams for our writing and creative work.
14.45
Experiential writing exercises & feedback
A chance to choose between two groups, one using creative non-fiction techniques to write about your therapeutic practice, and another using fiction-writing techniques to explore where you are as a therapist.
15.40
Break
16.00
Experiential writing exercises & feedback
Coming back into one group, we will consolidate the discoveries we have made during the day and make firm links between our writing and our therapeutic practice.
17.00
Closing Q&A & feedback
17.30
End