What is the project?
As part of BEDLAM arts and mental health programme, funded by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust, Hayley Frances is running free therapeutic sessions for mothers of baby loss, birth trauma or miscarriage. Guided in artistic expression through poetry, creative writing, art, and nature, participants will gently source the right words as a companion of support and help translate grief.
The project is a safe space hosted by therapeutic artists where each parent is supported to find solace and form language for loss. The programme is relaxed, low pressure, supportive space where mothers feel welcome and understood.
Therapeutic Poetry Practitioner Hayley Frances is hosting the project, working with a series of grief practitioners, writers and artists who will lead us in a range of different writing and creative activities to translate grief, develop self-awareness, emotional resilience and communal grief tending. Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions in order to gain the most out of the experience.
Who are we?
Hayley Frances is a Birmingham poet training in Biblio-Poetry therapy. Her debut collection Administer the Laughing Gas, due out with Verve Poetry Press 2024, is a navigation of grief after losing her pre-term daughter and re-encountering life with trauma. She is the poet in residence for Lindale Recovery and Kimpton Fitzroy as a voice for women and the therapeutic potential of creative writing. Hayley’s the founder of ODEHE.ART, a multi-poetry movement encouraging self-authorship for creativity, awareness, strength and healing.
Bethany Rivers is a published poet and author. She specialises in poetry for the bereaved, writing for health and wellbeing, and creative writing and poetry workshops for a wide range of people with mental health difficulties. Bethany has worked in a number of settings within the community (bereavement charity Edward’s Trust, mental health charities such as MIND and Pont Hafren, art galleries, museums, libraries, schools, and prisons), as well as educational establishments (Aberystwyth University, Cardiff University, Coleg Harlech, Shrewsbury College of Art & Technology).
The project is under the mentorship of poetry therapist Victoria Field.
What's the substance?
Each session will be led by a seasoned and professional poetry practitioner whose practice includes biblio- poetry (a type of expressive arts, like music and art therapy), creative writing, journalling, nature bathing and gentle movement as containers and expressions for grief. The sessions provide a creative outlet where participants are guided in the art of expression through poetry and creative writing to support their transition through grief.
The sessions will include a series of writing prompts, guided grief tending circles, readings, art therapy, connections to natures depictions of grief, and storytelling on the following themes; self-identification, the circle of life, trauma response (mental health teachings), emotional awareness, the physical body, nature bathing, acrostic name work and mapping of our relationships, letter writing, sensory and neurological (bodily) reaction to loss, and the exploration of the family we imagined outside of the loss.
We will;
1. Use poetry and creative writing to validate the existence of our lost little one,
2. Host a safe creative space for our grief and
3. Create a community where each parent is supported and cared for mutually in a way that allows them to process their emotions through the power of writing.
Where?
All sessions will be at Midlands Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, B12 9QH.
When?
The Right Words Therapeutic Poetry Project for Bereaved Mothers @ MAC
Sessions are on Sundays, 11am – 1pm beginning 23rd April.
Who is the programme for?
We accept referrals of women who have experienced baby-loss and/or accessing primary or secondary mental health services via the Maternal Mental Health Team in South Birmingham or Solihull. Bably-loss encompasses your experience of baby-loss, whether that’s miscarriage, pre-term birth, still birth, or the death of a baby. This is for mothers who have lost their baby/babies x
We have up to 15 spaces, and ask that participants attend as many of the sessions as they can. We accept referrals on an ongoing basis.
Travel Expenses and Access
MAC will reimburse reasonable travel expenses within Birmingham and Solihull. Please let us know of other access needs via the referral form.
Disclaimer
This is not a counselling project or therapy. This is a creative arts project that uses writing and creative expression as a therapeutic practice to improve well-being.