On Writing Sessions

Working with Monica has shown me that writing can be linked to other creative practices and I can now achieve what I need and feel empowered to express myself with words as I do with drawing. Writing, previously a place of fear because of my dyslexia, is now a pleasure. I’ve come to realize that there wasn’t anything ‘wrong’ with my writing — all the things I found difficult were just part of who I am, and I needed to embrace them. 

Monica is agile in the way we approach our meetings and has the ability to work creatively with everything from the ephemeral to the academic. It’s like having a personal trainer for your mind, body and creative practice. All of this has been achieved despite the fact that we’ve never met and worked through online meetings. What began as a five week course of sessions has grown into nearly two years of constant exploration.

Dr Mikey Tomkins: Honorary Research Fellow, University of Brighton.

I love writing. It’s actually enjoyable working on big stuff through the approach Monica uses — the way through to the heart of difficult problems in an alternative way other than talking. There is space for laughter and tears. She works with gentleness, perceptiveness, clarity and insightfulness. I’m amazed at the loving bond we have through the medium of Zoom. I will give her such a big hug if I ever get to meet her!

Rachael Underwood: adviser in early years education 

On Supervision Workshops

The workshop On Authority offered me reassurance that a gentle approach to authority is fine. There’s a delicate balance to be struck between being an authority that will keep a group safe and recognising that participants are the authority on their own lives. The workshop helped me check in with these concepts and gave me a confidence boost – a renewed sense that I’m on the right track. KM —  Writing for Wellbeing Facilitator

There was an open-heartedness within the group, plenty of room for spontaneity in the way the workshop unfolded - a ‘going with the flow’ together with gentle guidance from Monica who always gives much thought in preparation for all her workshops. Everyone really listened to one another and I experienced a quality of communion with others working in the field of Writing for Wellbeing. It gave me a boost of self-recognition and reminded me just how much I love and care about doing such work. Holding the Space adds to my bank of resources in the form of the experiential that I can dip into each time I offer a ‘safe space’ to participants in my own workshops. FS — Facilitator: Writing for Wellbeing with adults and children

Taking part in the workshop on holding the space was a deeply nourishing and enjoyable experience which, I feel sure, has strengthened my practice.  The workshop was experiential, fostered confidence — a reminder to trust oneself, place more emphasis on receiving, not fixing.  Monica welcomed whatever happened, and modelled the process of holding space, responding to the group and process in the moment. The workshop enabled me to experience and examine a core aspect of Writing for Wellbeing practice. Doing so in a safely held group deepened the experience and facilitated creative reflections and an embodied understanding of the concept of holding space.     JW

The workshop gave me an opportunity to step back from the everyday and reflect, explore, discuss and write in a focused way. This gave me words to begin to explain previously unarticulated thoughts and gain an additional clarity about my approach to my practice. The workshop increased my confidence in understanding the concept of ‘holding the space’ and offered the opportunity to listen to the ideas of others, which had the effect of the cross fertilisation of ideas. MS: counsellor and mental health mentor 

On Writing Sessions . . . a few more

My writing sessions with Monica help me to move more freely and openly into my own emotional truths, without fear and without judgement. Through the gentle holding space Monica creates I have uncovered a spectrum of emotions and memories that both heal, and serve as fuel for my work as a writer. This freedom of creative and emotional thought also crosses over into my literary and academic writing projects. The only way I can describe it is that I write more deeply. I’m less occluded by fear of judgement (by other people and my own self-judgement). More importantly, I am less afraid to ‘go there’ in my writing: to try to touch the profundity of human experience that I so crave in good writing — others’ and my own. JC

This space gives me the opportunity to think about things on my mind in a more creative way that goes beyond the boundaries and limitations of talking. Writing takes me into different and sometimes surprising directions whilst at the same time providing a visual written record where I can see that things have shifted over time. It gives time to explore things that matter to me as well as in the relationships I have in a different way, and I am grateful for the impact that has had. HD

My own writing often surprises me with what I find within myself. I couldn’t do this on my own. LW