The comments below are reproduced with kind permission of the participants in workshops I have facilitated. My thanks to them for the feedback, and for their generosity and commitment in the groups’ work.
[The session was] stimulating, an adventure in thought and feeling. [Lucy is] so good with articulating thoughts, and picking up and interpreting responses.
A brilliant presenter who brought the poems to life; yet we could put forward our own ideas and interpretations without them being judged… fabulous, inspiring and motivating.
[The session was] well-presented and skilfully guided [with] excellent exploration of how the poems can be used to support clients in their grief. A really good way of connecting with the emotions.
I [can] struggle to find the ‘right’ or most useful words to enable clients to feel or experience feelings or themselves fully—so the poems and their powerful words and elicited emotions feel like a real gift.
The enthusiasm of Lucy was wonderful. Where did 3 hours go?!
I wish I had been introduced to poetry in a way like this much sooner.
[There was a] beautiful welcoming spirit, [a] sense of safety in exploring profoundly personal subjects through poetry while also honouring the perspectives of others and having those perspectives deepen and extend my own.
To fully inhabit and experience places of mind that we are not normally equipped to deal with, through carefully selected poetry, in the company of others, has been very special. The open and safe environment of sharing these experiences Lucy cultivated is something I will never forget.
…something beautiful, touching, memorable…
[I loved] the honesty with which Lucy took us to the bottom of the grieving process and the beauty of coming upwards into the light; the sensitive and wonderful way the poetry was read and interpreted by Lucy, herself a poet… [and] sharing with the group on both poetry and loss.
[The workshop helped] me through the grieving process, providing me with some texts for thinking about my context… introducing me to poems and poets that I did not know, and helping me appreciate how poetry can define and explain strong emotions… Thank you for helping me in a way that I had not expected… I have a better understanding of what it means to lose someone who has been a major part of my life.
…. time to reflect in a stimulating and safe group context… [‘The difference to me’] has been a revelation in 1) understanding the grief process 2) being excited and delving deeply into the poems 3) hearing poems interpreted by Lucy and the other attendees
Lucy was so warm and welcoming and shared her vast wealth of literary knowledge. It was lovely to reconnect with literature in such a supportive space where everyone’s opinions were valued.
The group has been remarkable. Thank you so much. It has made a difference to me.
A stimulating and enjoyable workshop. I found it so interesting and felt that a door had flown open inside me, in fact not just one but another and another, calling me to forth to look for more poems to engage with. It has reconnected me with my love of poetry in a way which will be so helpful and nurturing, particularly in relation to loss and death and ageing. Finding oneself with thoughts and feelings expressed almost magically by poets has reminded me how that spiritual connection can be made upon reading or hearing words which speak for you and yet were written by someone else. It is this that calls me to pursue more.