Tend/er: Writing Pain
I had a spectacular trampolining accident when I was 11 and started secondary school with a cast up to my shoulder and three separate breaks running through my arm. When I was 6 I climbed a tree and promptly fell off it into a blanket of nettles and had stings covering my body from head to toe that no humble dock leaf could soothe. On a family holiday I once stood on a weaver fish and it shot poison up my leg, leaving me on the beach writhing and screaming. When I was 21 my ankle swelled up to the size of a half-heartedly blown balloon and I was carried to the emergency room. This was the beginning of what, after many gruelling months and more swollen joints later, I was told was called rheumatoid arthritis.
Now there is a lot that I don’t know about, but after living with chronic pain for over twelve years, I do know something about pain. Pain literally lives deep in my very bones. And I do know about writing pain. I have written diaries, speeches, a play, essays, a whole damn poetry collection punctuated by pain. And, my current writing project is a piece of creative non-fiction entirely focusing on, you guessed it… pain!
And I’ll tell you what, my hot take, my controversial opinion, my secret to share with you is writing about pain is (can be / will be) so FUN. As well as soothing, therapeutic, confronting and cathartic.
I’ve run a series of sold-out Writing Pain workshops but these courses are a chance to really dive deep, get curious and experiment alongside an encouraging and caring group. My study in poetry for therapy, alongside over a decade of lived experience, informs and supports my facilitation of this space, with tenderness, sensitivity, and playfulness.
Writing about pain has been transformational for me. And it can be for you too. Join me?