Transform your experience into poetry

Sunday 12th June 2022

10am- 5pm

Studio 34 - Integrative Arts Psychotherapy space

Bickerton House, Bickerton Road

Archway, London. N19 5JT

Cost: £80. A limited number of concessionary places are available.

Please contact hello@wildwords.org to book your place, or for further information.

Using a process known as ‘found verse’ Bridget will facilitate a safe group space in which, using verbatim words as a basis, you’ll transform experiences – from joyful to traumatic – into spoken and written poems.

In the process, we’ll share experiences, track down our authentic voice and discover the stories we truly need to tell. You’ll come away with both individually and collaboratively crafted work.

To support this process there will be readings of inspirational poems and art, montage and body awareness exercises.

Bridget will address subjects including sensory impressions, body sensations, emotion, point of view, the narrative arc, rhythm, tension, voice, character and dialogue, form, working with personal and/or traumatic material, and the role of storytelling in enabling human beings to survive and thrive.

We’ll explore the (often unconscious) structures and techniques that, when we sit down to write, creates the idea of ‘block’, as well as gain an equal understanding of how to arrive at ‘flow’.

By the end of the workshop you’ll have used the smallest signs to covey the most vast, transformed the unspeakable into words, and laughed a great deal with like-minded souls.

Some parts of the day will take place in the nearby park or heath. Please bring coldproof, waterproof clothing, writing materials (laptops welcome but please also bring hand writing materials) and lunch. Tea/coffee and cake will be provided. No previous familiarity (or confidence) with words is required! Suitable for your own creative/therapeutic exploration as well as for therapists/teachers wishing to develop skills for client, student and patients groups.

‘The One True Word Project’ and the process known as ‘found verse’ was developed by psychotherapist, writer and founder of Wild Words Bridget Holding in response to distressing world situations. It offers safe group spaces, word-crafting skills and a public platform to enable the processing of emotion and the communicating of experience through words. The project publishes poetry and short prose online. Work is also read aloud on the ground where it has been written, and sent in letter form to interested parties.