Diploma in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (2) 2007-9
1. Your Application Alongside your completed application form, we ask you to submit an original manuscript (1,500 words or 5 poems), and evidence of attendance at a counselling skills course (or intention to attend a course). Evidence of Accredited Prior Learning is also required. Admission is based upon the manuscript submitted, completion of a short course in counselling, accredited prior learning and on interview. 2. About the Diploma The Diploma in Creative Writing is part of a framework of part-time programmes offered within the Faculty of Applied Community and Health Studies of the University of Bristol. This course was piloted in September 2000 and is now being reintroduced to provide a coherent and disciplined framework for people with some previous experience of writing and interest in using writing as a therapeutic tool with other people. The Diploma is taught at Level I (equivalent to second year undergraduate level). Entry to the course therefore requires evidence of prior achievement equivalent to 120 credits at Level C (students who are invited to interview will be provided with more information about how this evidence is produced). To support the therapeutic side of the course, a minimum of a short course in counselling (see http://www.bris.ac.uk/cppd/cppdshortcourses/01.html) or equivalent is required; to support the writing side of the course some evidence of prior achievement in creative writing is necessary. Applications from those returning to study after a gap are encouraged. The Diploma concentrates on two strands of study: „Writing for Personal Development‟ and „Working with Other People‟. „Writing for Personal Development‟ will involve students‟ exploration of their own personal stories through prose and poetry. „Working with Other People‟ will involve students developing skills for facilitating therapeutic writing groups in healthcare, therapeutic settings and education. The course encourages improvement in each individual‟s writing craft, alongside skills in facilitation. It is essential that applicants are interested in both strands of the course. An important component of the course is working with fellow students to share writing and practise facilitation. An experienced counsellor, who will oversee the course from a pastoral point of view, will teach elements of groupwork. A full list of current tutors is included in this pack. The fee for DCWTP(2) for 2007 – 2008 will be £1200 per year. Fees will increase annually in line with the University of Bristol fee guidelines 3. Course Structure The Diploma, which is offered as extended study, comprises 180 contact hours over two years. The course will meet on twenty-four Monday afternoons
from 2.00pm-5.30pm in Year One and sixteen Monday afternoons in Year Two. In addition, there are six Saturday schools, one per term. This structure is designed to enable students to balance studies with work commitments. The course is modular in structure, with six units of 20 credits each, a total of 120 credits. Units 1-3 are taken in the Year One and units 4-6 in Year Two. Attendance is particularly important on this course, as the group work closely, developing together throughout the two years. Although some degree of specialism is possible, particularly in the individual project, the course encourages students to develop a working experience of a diversity of theoretical approaches to the field and creative approaches to writing. It is therefore essential that students undertake each of the taught units 1-4. Students progress towards an individual project in units 5 and 6. Unit 1 – Introduction to Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes The unit will establish the links between writing and its applications and will initiate the compilation of a portfolio of the student‟s own writing. Students will have started to tackle general issues to be explored throughout the Diploma, such as the difference between writing for self-expression or self-discovery, and writing for publication. They will have an enhanced understanding of the ethical considerations involved in making use of one‟s own personal material or in inviting others to do so. All four core tutors will be introduced early in the Unit and spread teaching across the eight weeks and a dayschool. The counsellor overseeing the course will also be introduced. Tutorials will be available. Assessment will be an essay of 3000 words on the unit themes, using bibliography provided. Unit 2 – Autobiography and Critical Analysis The unit will explore the theme of autobiography (representing lived experience), the art of self-disclosure and learning to respond to others. Students will have built up a portfolio of original writing in response to their own experience and their reading and study of primary texts. They will have developed a more critical and analytical understanding of their own writing. Taught by core tutors, eight weeks with a dayschool. Tutorials will be available. Assessment will be examples of work (max 12 pages of A4) from a folder of creative writing produced during the unit and a reflective piece on these pieces (1500 words). Unit 3 – Settings and Techniques Visiting and course tutors will enable students to study a range of settings in which creative writing is currently practised as a therapy: psychiatric hospitals
and day centres, hospices, homes for the elderly, prisons, etc. The objective is to understand what constitutes good practice (ground-rules, confidentiality, safety, etc.). Students will have encountered at second hand some of the possible problems and pitfalls, as well as the challenges and advantages of using writing for therapeutic purposes and will have studied and appraised the techniques appropriate to working with different client groups. They will have explored the purposes and methods of journal-keeping. Taught by core tutors, plus two invited tutors to cover particular settings. Eight weeks with a dayschool. Tutorials will be available. Assessment will be a course journal (3000-5000 words) investigating at least one therapeutic setting and reflecting on student‟s personal experience in relation to this. Unit 4 – Groupwork Theory and Practice The unit aims to establish good groupwork practice through rigorous but supportive training in leading and facilitating creative writing in groups. Students will themselves have led workshops, applying what they have learnt so far, planning and presenting writing exercises to the group as a whole. From discussion and feedback by both students and tutors they will have learnt basic groupwork skills and will have begun to understand the theory and practice of groupwork. Taught by core tutors, plus input from the counsellor overseeing the course. Eight weeks with a dayschool. Tutorials will be available. Assessment will be a written account of seminar presentation (including any stimulus material), together with discussion of any possible pitfalls/positive outcomes in working with a particular client group (3000 words). Unit 5 & Unit 6 – Further Understanding and Individual Project Students will study some of the research on methods and processes of therapeutic writing and will explore the formal characteristics of some emerging genres, e.g. “illness narratives”. Students will have built up a portfolio of original writing in response to their own experience and their reading and study of primary texts. They will have developed a more critical and analytical understanding of their own writing. Each student will work on an independent 5,000-word project to be agreed in advance with the Course Co-ordinator. The project can be practical-based, for example, on the student‟s own professional work or a placement set up by the student, or it may be primarily theoretical in approach. In either case it will be submitted in the form of a dissertation. The work in progress will be discussed regularly in individual tutorials. The unit also includes a final presentation of the project to the group.
Students will have mastered a well-defined topic and will have contributed to the further understanding of a practical or theoretical aspect of therapeutic writing. These two units will be taught half time by the core tutors, offering time in and out of the classroom. There will be a Saturday dayschool per unit. Although students are not required to find a formal placement, a practise arena is required, whether outside or within the classroom setting with their peers. Tutorials will be available. Unit Five assessment will be an essay of 3000 words on a topic related to this unit - e.g. “What is an illness narrative?” Unit Six assessment is a dissertation of 5000 words, based on an individual project (75% of marks); the student‟s performance in the presentation of the project will also be assessed (25% of marks).
4. Teaching, Learning and Assessment There are no formal examinations; students submit written work at the end of each unit. Each unit is assessed on a pass/fail basis, with additional categories of Borderline Pass (P-) and Pass with commendation (P*) to signal work at either end of the spectrum. Satisfactory attendance is required on all units. The criteria for assessment is set at the beginning of each unit, and is always appropriate to the context of the unit. For example, Unit 1 will require a willingness to engage with the various exercises, to show understanding of basic ideas in Therapeutic Writing and to complete basic examples of Writing for Personal Development; Unit 6 will require crafted Personal Writing alongside informed theoretical discussion of approaches to “Working with Others”. A pass is required in all units, but failed assignments may be re-presented within a period of time to be determined by the Department. A student is awarded a Commendation in the Diploma as a whole, where they have achieved a P* in four or more units. 5. Teaching Staff on the Diploma
Rose Flint Rose Flint is a poet and art therapist. She is Lead Writer for the Kingfisher Project, using creative writing in the community and hospital of Salisbury; she has worked in a wide variety of healthcare settings including Spinal, Burns, Speech and Language Therapy, Stroke Rehab, Maternity, Hospice and Elderly Care. She is a regular tutor for Ty Newydd and Arvon and visiting lecturer for John Moores Liverpool University and Sussex University. A prizewinning poet, she has had two „Poetry Places,‟ one of which was six months in a doctor‟s surgery in Bristol. Her poetry can be found in many anthologies
and magazines and she has three collections, Blue Horse of Morning (Seren) Firesigns (Poetry Salzburg) and Nekyia (Stride). A frequent contributor to the Lapidus and NAWE magazines, her writing is also included in Creative Writing in Health And Social Care (ed. Fiona Sampson, JKP), Writing the Bright Moment (Roselle Angwin, pub. Fire in the Head) Writing Works (ed. Bolton, Field, Thompson, pub. JKP) The Writer’s Workbook ( ed. Newman, Cusick, LaTourette, pub. Arnold).
Fiona Hamilton Fiona Hamilton has an MA in English Language and Literature from Oxford University. After a Diploma in Drama from East 15 Acting School she managed QEH Theatre in Bristol, directing productions and teaching. Her writing developed from improvised scripts to stories and poems. She has published two poetry collections – „Poems for People‟ (2005) and „Skinandi‟ (2006). She set up „Writing in Healthcare‟ to provide creative writing sessions for people in Bristol hospitals and in complementary care. She has been facilitating sessions in hospital and at the Penny Brohn centre since 2002. Other published work includes a poem on the glass walls of the café at Blaise Castle and sections in A Resource Handbook for Therapeutic Writing Workshops and Activities (Jessica Kingsley, 2006).
Graham Harthill Graham has lived mostly in Wales for the last thirty years. Poet and workshop facilitator, he is a co-founder of Lapidus, works in the fields of mental health and disability and has been Lifelines facilitator for the Ledbury Poetry Festival for eight years, working with elderly people. He is currently writer-in-residence at HMP & YOI Parc, Bridgend. Graham has published papers, given many talks and run countless workshops in varied areas of writing in health care and personal development. He is currently working under an Arts Council of Wales Writing Bursary to complete a book on the challenges to established forms of writing presented by this work. His poetry has been widely published in the UK and the USA as well as in China, and his selected poems, Cennau's Bell, was published in 2005 by The Collective Press. 2007 sees the launch of his new collection, A Winged Head, by Parthian Books.
Claire Williamson Claire has a Masters degree in Literary Studies from University of the West of England and a Certificate in Counselling Skills. She has been a practitioner in Therapeutic Writing since 1998, working in areas such as addiction recovery and profound disability. Claire is also an associate lecturer at Sussex University on Writing for Personal Development.
Claire‟s latest collection Ride On (PoTA Press) is a confessional narrative written in poems, tracing steps from childhood and culminating in the aftermath of her brother‟s suicide in 1993. She has published two essays: Survive and Shine: Using Poetry with Young People (Radcliffe Medical Press) and On the Road to Recovery: Writing as Therapy for People in Recovery from Addiction (Brunner-Routledge) and contributed to Writing Works (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) and the forthcoming Prompted to Write (Lapidus). Claire is currently working on a novel in verse entitled: The Homecoming.
Becky Midwinter Becky Midwinter is a trained counsellor and completed an MSc in Counselling Research in 2003. Her research interest is looking at how trauma is passed on through individuals, families and cultures and how the past influences who and how we are in the world today. She presently works for Bristol University and her roles are varied and interesting. She is the Director of the Centre for Personal & Professional Development, Programme Director for the Certificate in Counselling Skills and Short Course Programmes and she is in the process of developing the University‟s first Foundation Degree in Counselling, in partnership with the City of Bristol College. She also teaches on the BSc in Audiology and MSc in Rehabilitative Audiology programmes and some short courses.