I have a particular interest in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP) which broadly defined means using expressive, reflective and autobiographical fiction writing as a way to gain insights about our relationships with ourselves and others, explore life transitions and to access, process and express our feelings.

On a recent trip to Avebury stone circles, a place I had never been before, I was really struck by the juxtaposition of man and nature in this sacred space – the wild power of both the landscape itself and the raw materials man has used to leave his mark on it.  We don’t know what it all means, why it was built here or what it was used for and yet as I walked there I felt it resonating in me, as if it had a physical way of speaking to me down all the thousands of years it has stood here, connecting with something deep inside of me that perhaps I find (nearly) impossible to express.

On coming home from that trip, I felt this strong sense of CWTP acting in a similar way – the idea of feelings and experiences being raw and elemental forces acting on and within us and words both bearing witness to that but also having the potential to shape and change those feelings and experiences.  It inspired me to write this poem in which I’m connecting the two:

truth

like earth and wood and fire

these are your words written now

no one to say it didn’t happen that way or at all

your words tumbling out of the earth

like forces of nature

fierce streams forming the land

carving valleys from the swampy lowlands

where you walk unafraid

your words a staff to lean on

your experiences raw elemental magic

that you draw on as you face the unknown

these words are your words written now

standing stones in sacred spaces

witnesses

If this sounds like a way of working that you’re interested in and you would like to know more about how therapeutic writing could be used within an individual counselling session, please contact me on 07875 403 188.