Writing for Wellbeing

Writing for Wellbeing is at The Quaker Centre on Saturday 12 December, a two-hour in-person session that treats writing as a tool for stress reduction and mental health rather than a literary exercise. It's run as a restorative, non-academic space to explore ideas, thoughts and emotions on the page, so you don't need to be a writer to get anything out of it.

Felicia Jones leads the session, and she comes to it from a specific background: she's a nutritionist and a stress management trainer who writes regularly for health and wellbeing magazines. The class is kept small, with eight to ten participants, so it's more of a quiet group than a crowded room. Writing exercises open up the work, and there's always the option to share what you've written if you feel like it, but there's no requirement to do so — you can keep your pages to yourself the whole time.

Jones frames the approach around a quote from Julia Cameron: 'Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury.' That sets the tone for the two hours — the focus is on what the writing does for you, not on the quality of the prose. One past participant described it as 'a workshop where you take time for yourself in a safe space'.

It runs for two hours at The Quaker Centre in Milton Keynes on Saturday 12 December, and tickets range from £15.50 to £29.00.