national Arts Festival Banner

Thursday, April 11, 2019

WRITE TO RIGHT


(Laura Campbell &Bernice Stott. Pic by Val Adamson)

Find healing through the art of writing

Write to Right is a specialised short interactive writing course which is once again being offered by two leading Durban-based creative thinkers - physician Laura Campbell and artist / theologian Bernice Stott - as a vehicle to encourage healing and wellbeing.

Write to Right will be facilitated jointly by Laura Campbell and Bernice Stott. It is a weekly, small-group, bespoke writing course to explore the discipline of writing as healing and catharsis. The course offers an unusual opportunity of linking the creative art of writing to the science of wellness. By the completion of the course, participants will have created a meaningful piece of writing and will have gained understanding into the neurosciences involved in writing and in health.

Stott and Campbell jointly created a course which teaches creative writing as a means of personal expression. They ran it for the first time in 2017 and were so surprised and touched by the phenomenal response, that they are running the course again in three venues in Durban in May and June.

The course has been edited and modified slightly based on feedback from participants. “We are offering this course for anyone who would like to find healing through the art of writing or those who want to write about loss, love, and life’s challenges. Now more than ever, we want to help people transform their narrative of mismatched, confused, angry, despairing, sad words and mould them to beauty and magic,” explains physician and writer Laura Campbell.

Based in Westville, Campbell has worked and studied extensively abroad. An active writer, she won the Eileen Molver Trophy for Children`s Story (2017); was awarded second place in the South African Writers Circle First Chapter of a Novel Competition. She is currently studying Creative Writing at Rhodes University, South Africa. She is a highly-qualified specialist family physician with a particular interest in palliative care and mental health.

Durban-based Bernice Stott is a highly respected practicing visual artist (working in various mediums) with academic qualifications in drama, visual art and theology. She has participated in a myriad solo and group exhibitions throughout South Africa and abroad.  She has been a minister, a teacher, a facilitator and an artist. She offers Artists’ Way courses, based on the philosophy of Julia Cameron, and is a qualified Lifeline trainer. Stott has an active interest in the work of Jung and archetypes; and explores the intersection between social justice / arts / feminism / philosophy and theology. 

Previous participants from the inaugural course have said: “I like that the burden of right or wrong is addressed. It gives our own voice the space to be ok as we are, wherever we are in our own journey.”; “Loving the combination of Science (Laura) and art (Bernice) - it is magical,”; “The experience of the writing course was profound for me…” and “Thank you for the safe, welcoming space you created for our writing group,”

The courses take place in three different locations and time frames:

Westville: May 6, 13. 20 and 27and June 3, 10, 17 and 25 (eight weeks). Time 17h30 to 19h30. Cost R3,800

North Coast (Westbrook): May 7, 14, 21 and 28 and June 4, 11, 18 and 24. Time 1030 to 1230. Cost R3,800

Solitude Retreat Centre (Midlands) May 31 and June 1 and 2. Cost R1,900 (all inclusive).

For further details or booking, contact info@writetoright.co.za