I’m excited to be embarking on a new course this January as part of my Continuing Professional Development. I’ve chosen to do a course in Writing for Wellbeing at Cardiff University. The course is delivered online, with lectures to watch each week and materials to download. There will be a big personal writing emphasis on the course, which I am really looking forward to.
I chose this course because clients often share things they’ve written with me. Sometimes this takes the form of a poem, or a journal, or even a bullet-pointed list, but it always reveals something of their feelings and their process. I am always delighted when a client pulls a well-loved notebook from their bag or (more often these days) retrieves a notes app on their phone. I think this is because I have always written to sort through and soothe my own feelings, so I intuitively get how helpful our own writing can be.
The course will certainly help me to broaden my thinking about the theory behind different ways of writing for wellbeing. At the moment I feel that I rely largely on my personal experience and intuition about how writing helps, and it will boost my confidence to understand the research behind how writing helps and get some ideas for encouraging clients.
It’s going to be tricky finding time to write and learn, but I am sure it will be worth it. I will keep my blog updated about it all, for anyone who’s interested either in doing this course themselves (it’s for anyone who’s interested in the topic, it’s not specifically for therapists) or writing for their own wellbeing.