Creative writing workshops on Felindre Ward

Emma Beynon is a writer and creative facilitator based in Mid Wales. Since the pandemic she has “led creative writing workshops on Zoom and face-to-face. Every workshop is carefully planned to guide participants through a series of exercises designed to fire up their creativity and strengthen their writing skills.”

Late last year Emma began facilitating creative writing workshops on Felindre Ward, the mental health inpatient ward in South Powys.

This week I caught up with Emma to find out more about more about the workshops and her creative writing work in general.

Tell us more about your role on Felindre Ward

Millie, the Occupational Therapist, invited me to attend to run creative writing workshops to compliment the work she already does on the ward. I’d already been running creative writing workshops online during Covid, working with Mid & North Powys Mind, and had a tremendous response.

Creative writing was part of the choice of activities people have during their stay on the ward.

What happened at the workshops

I came in for an hour every Wednesday for 11 weeks in total until the end of March 2022. There is an amazing creative room on Felindre Ward where they do pottery. I brought in a table cloth and objects such as flowers, feathers, rocks and postcards to soften the room and set up the table as if we were in a cafe.

I always start with a short warm up. It could be a playful question such as: If you were a packet of crisps what flavour would you be today? This would be followed by a ‘free write’. This technique is used by many professional writers to limber up.

Free writing invites participants to write without stopping, letting their thoughts flow onto paper. There is no wrong answer. The emphasis is upon catching ideas rather than worrying about spelling or punctuation. I find it is really useful to use a prompt when free writing, a starting point such as a shell, a feather -  something to hold and look at.

I might also let everyone choose a postcard of a painting and ask them to free write in response to that. If I can sense participants are stuck I ask questions about the painting. What do you see or hear? What do you smell, what textures might you sense? I invite them to draw upon memory. If people get stuck I encourage them to not let your pen stop moving! Just write “I don’t know what to write” until the stuckness stops. If people can look at me very grumpily – that’s fine – I smile and invite them to continue. I try and shift the parameters until they feel safe enough and ready to give it a go.

Free writing is a great way of focusing on the five senses and noticing too. Millie (OT) was the first to notice the link between creative writing and mindfulness, but during the course of the project many of the participants enjoyed making that link too.

I would then share a selection of poems: poems about nature, weather, working on building sites, even a ping pong ball. I wanted everyone to understand that poetry is a broad church, it can be about anything, not just flowers and feelings. We then read the poems aloud, line by line. This is often a wonderful moment of group performance where we all rely upon each other. Everyone’s voice brings a new meaning to the lines. After reading the poem a number of times we’d talk about about how the poem makes us feel, what we enjoy, what we don’t like.

I was very keen that everyone could be honest about what they felt about the poems, you do not have to like them, they were there to be discussed. I was really impressed by everyone’s response, it was always so detailed, evocative and yet always so true. I learnt so much from the group.

I will never forget the day we read The Door by Miroslav Holub, it is one of my favourite poems, I have read it so many times and always loved it. But this time when we read it, one of the participants just looked up, smiled and said ‘It’s about change’. I had never thought of that, to me it was about risk and opportunity. But they were right, it was great to witness everyone bring their own view of the world to strengthen our understanding. Inspired by the poem, the discussion or maybe just a line or image, everyone would be given the chance to write and they did!

How did the project come about?

As part of the HORIZON project led by Powys Teaching Health Board in partnership with Powys County Council. “HORIZON aims to strategically embed person-centred creativity at the heart of mental health and wellbeing practice.”

One of the aims of the HORIZON project is to learn about patient experiences through involvement in the arts.

Other creative interventions are being planned in Powys, including somatic experiencing and dance with people engaged in the Improving Cancer Journey, and clay modelling, sculpture making and printing workshops for young people at risk of substance misuse at the Mid Wales Arts Centre.

How do you support someone who says they can’t write?

A lot of people think creative writing is like the writing you did at school. But creative writing is completely different. I make this explicit at the start of the workshops when I introduce free writing. I explain that everyone has an individual voice which develops from what they notice. Creative writing is about capturing what you notice in words so there is no wrong answer. Creative writing, in its early stages,  is always messy, misspelt, and the punctuation can be wrong – but it doesn’t matter!

It’s a bit like a sport - you need to practice to get match fit. So I support people from the start to feel they can give it a go. During the project sometimes participants got stuck or did not want to write a particular poem so I would offer them an alternative. That’s the great thing about creative writing - it is very adaptable. Often when I find I get stuck with my own writing I just make myself write a list of questions or objects or thoughts or feelings and somehow this helps get over the ‘stuckness’.

What are the benefits of the creative arts, and specifically creative writing, for mental health inpatients?

A chance to relax

‘It was really relaxing because it does not matter what you write, there is no fear of judgement. If you hate it, so what? You don’t have to share it or go back to it if you don’t want to. Next time you will have a chance to develop different skills. It develops a resilience. It’s just about the person who is writing, the participants lead it, they can write what they like, they have control, they can share their views on a poem and then do what they like.’ Feedback from Occupational Therapist, Bronllys Secure Mental Health Unit.

Confidence

‘I feel as if my confidence in my own creative abilities has grown’. Mind Participant.

‘Creative writing gives me confidence, a voice and certainly an outlet to escape the daily pressures of life.’  Mind Participant.

‘They've made me feel about fitting in, and confidence to maybe not fit in, but still be a part of things?’  Mind Participant.

Companionship

‘You could see that they wanted each other to be good, they really listened. Sometimes out on the ward this does not happen.’  Feedback from Occupational Therapist, Bronllys Secure Mental Health Unit.

‘I love sharing our creations, I feel like I'm getting to know everyone a little better through the sharing of our work. It's beginning to feel like a family in a way’. Mind Participant

New skills and hobby

‘I have gained so much knowledge and confidence as well as interest to definitely try and find more courses to learn more skills in writing.’  Mind Participant.

‘I learnt how to have more structure to writing. I learnt how to write in a time frame without pondering too much and without over thinking. I learnt how to believe that what I write is worth more than to be lost on random bits of paper and thrown away when it's clear up time.’  Mind Participant.

‘I cannot thank you enough for connecting, engaging and inspiring me to write. I ask myself questions about what I am writing as you would at times. I enjoy stripping away words and using the magic of simple language. I will carry it on and what you have taught us I will carry with me always’. Mind Participant.

Participants on one of Emma's creative writing workshops in Newtown

What are the benefits to the providers of health services?

• Millie remarked positively on the way the workshop provided an escape from the ‘enclosed hospital environment of the ward’. Everyone shared all or part of their writing so we could imaginatively join them in Anglesey or out in the field in a valley somewhere in Mid Wales.
• The patient feels in control in an environment where they cannot control much as they control what they write about. If they like the poem and if they want to discuss/share it – it’s up to them.
• Patients are out of their room so can be assessed more easily.
• Concentration, motivation can be assessed as to whether they can concentrate throughout the duration of the group and then this can be monitored and compared to other weeks.
• Patients often feel a change in mood following the sessions as they have been off the ward (in the pottery room) which is a change of environment and so feel happier and brighter in mood.
• They can express themselves in a different means which they are comfortable about and say what they feel.
• It’s so good they get a chance to see the patient in a different and very positive light.

What happens to the creative work that the workshop participants produce?

My practice is all about process - those moments in the workshop rather than the outcome.

I bought notebooks for everyone, plus copies of poems to slip in. They all took their notebooks away and wrote in them in the evenings. They would often show me what they had written at the next session.

Those poems stayed in the notebooks and kick-started private writing and journaling.

Tell us about some of the more unusual places where you have held workshops over the years?

I once led writing workshops for the opening of a new Sustrans bicycle track in Paddington – it was a one-day celebration. Michael Bond, the author of ‘Paddington’, was there. It was difficult to start a workshop as people were milling around so I just went up to them and asked them to read ‘What If This Road,’ a poem by Sheenagh Pugh. Everyone loved the poem and they were keen to respond to it with a story or memory of hope for a road which I then scribed into a poem.

I do a lot of sailing and was sailing from Iceland to Greenland and got terribly seasick so they dropped me back in Iceland. There I was in NW Iceland when I was supposed to be in Greenland. I was feeling quite lonely and abandoned when I came across a tiny 1950s shoe shop which had been turned into a Museum of the Everyday. I went in there and talked to the girls who had started the Museum and within a week I was running writing workshops which developed into a residency every February in the town.

Do you have any other workshops coming up in Powys?

I have some new creative writing Workshops for Wellness starting on 21 April in Newtown in North Powys working in partnership with the Oriel Davies gallery.

We will try and capture the hidden beauty of Newtown’s parkland in words - noticing the changing seasons, the weather and wildlife. It’s about feeling good in body and mind and connecting us to the bigger picture.

Readings and reflections will also be shared to inspire participants to write as we explore Dolerw Park.

No previous experience is required, just curiosity and two hours of time on Thursday afternoons. Workshops are free of charge, funded through Welsh Government.

Workshop dates: April 21, 28 and May 5, 12, 19 & 26, 2 – 4pm.

Feedback from workshop participants

'I like it – poetry is a little like mindfulness.'

'I really enjoyed it.'

'I like it – it's random.'

Feedback from staff

‘It was really relaxing.’

‘I liked it, I enjoyed it. M enjoyed it and engaged much more than I thought he would be. I was surprised when he shared his first poem. It was good.’

A big thank you to Emma for telling us all about the creative writing workshops on Felindre Ward and other aspects of her writing life.

If you want to find out more about Emma Beynon’s work check out her website. You can contact Emma here and find her on Instagram here.

HORIZON is strategic, action-based pilot project designed to inform the production of the Creative Arts, Health & Wellbeing Strategy (led by Powys Teaching Health Board in partnership with Powys County Council) by providing arts interventions for people experiencing mental ill health across a whole range of areas. HORIZON aims to capture the patient voice / service user story around their creative experiences. The project is funded and supported by the Powys Teaching Health Board Charitable Fund and Powys County Council.