Welcome to Lapidus International
The Words and Writing For Wellbeing Community
Lapidus International is a membership organisation open to everyone with an interest in words for wellbeing.
We support and champion words and writing for wellbeing through development opportunities, exclusive member events, access to the latest research, and more.
We offer a supportive network to enhance both personal and professional wellbeing practice.
What Is Words and Writing For Wellbeing?
Words and writing for wellbeing is the use of words to explore thoughts, express emotions, and support personal growth. It’s not about perfect grammar or literary skill, it’s about connecting with yourself through journalling, poetry, storytelling, or reflective writing. Whether used in a group setting or privately, writing can be a powerful tool to process experiences, build resilience, and find clarity.
At Lapidus, we celebrate writing in all its forms as a gentle, creative way to nurture emotional, mental, and social wellbeing. Find out more in our handy guide to writing for wellbeing.
Upcoming Events
This is a 90-minute online reflective writing workshop that explores how embodied metaphors (objects, spaces, textures, and sensory imagery) can facilitate deep personal reflection without requiring full narrative disclosure. Drawing on the work of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, this workshop foregrounds metaphor as a form of cognition—a way the mind structures experience beyond literal narration.
Participants will engage in guided, metaphor-based writing prompts that invite them to enter experience through images rather than stories—for instance, imagining an emotional state as a place, object, texture, or landscape, and allowing these images to “speak back.” Each exercise will be followed by a brief reflection and sharing, supporting a contained and psychologically safe group process.
In a safe space, we will collectively explore how metaphor can be consciously leveraged in reflective and therapeutic writing. We will support each other to notice the inner images that organize emotional experience and gently reshape them to generate new insights. The workshop aims to offer a practical and portable tool for emotional processing, creativity, and self-understanding.
No prior writing experience is required.
About Facilitator:
Dr. Ananya Mahapatra is a psychiatrist with over 14 years of experience in clinical and research work. She transitioned from the role of a government consultant to an independent, person-centered practice in New Delhi two years ago. She is also a writer working in the intersection of creative writing and well-being, and conducts reflective writing workshops to support emotional growth and resilience. Trained in Bibliotherapy, she works at the intersection of mental health, mindful reading, and reflective writing — exploring how stories, metaphors, and expressive writing can help individuals process grief, identity shifts, and transitions that often remain unspoken.
I’d love you to join my Monthly Reset: a peaceful writing workshop where you can refresh, reflect and return to yourself. Over 90 nourishing minutes, we’ll move through mindfulness and creative writing exercises, with room for optional sharing, active listening and soft, spacious discussion, all held within a supportive, non‑judgemental writing room.
This workshop isn’t about learning to “be a writer” and you don’t need experience or perfect grammar either. It’s about using writing as a gentle tool for grounding, clarity and emotional well‑being, where all you need is a pen and paper (or a laptop) and curiosity to see what unfolds when you open the door to your own writing.
In this session, we’ll complete:
• a guided visualisation, mindfulness or breathing exercise to help you settle and centre
• therapeutic writing exercises and prompts designed to support your well-being
• spacious moments for listening, reflection and optional sharing of your writing
By the end of the workshop, you will have discovered how creative writing can open up meaningful insights into yourself, while also feeling renewed and connected to those around you.
Date:
Saturday 18 July, 16.00 – 17.30pm UK time (Zoom)
About Fi Humphries MSc
I am a Therapeutic Writing Practitioner and after completing my MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes with the Metanoia Institute, I founded The Wellness Writing Room to facilitate group workshops, 1-2-1 sessions and retreats using creative writing as a self-care tool for reflection and renewal. You can find out more about my work and the services I offer at www.thewellnesswritingroom.co.uk.
Writing for Wellbeing Workshop for women in the beautiful setting of Scampston Walled Garden conservatory. No prior knowledge required. Please bring a notebook and pen/pencil. The July theme is “Phases – Seven-year Cycles”.
Booking essential. For more information and to book, please contact sandie@essenceofwriting.com
A friendly and supportive online space to explore, create and express yourself through words.
Join Emma Garrard and Stephanie Aspin (author of “Poetry + Therapy: Why Words Help) online in a pressure-free creative space where we use poetry, prose and images to explore, create and express the self through writing, sharing (always optional) and reflecting. No experience of writing or poetry is needed.
Writing, Weaving, and Story: A Heuristic Self-Study
This session explores creative writing as a mode of inquiry, drawing on a heuristic self-study engaging with the figure of Penelope from The Odyssey. I will share how writing and weaving came together within my research process as ways of exploring and re-shaping story.
I reflect on midlife as a period of change and reconfiguration and consider how arts-based practices—such as blackout poetry, dialogue, and textile work—supported processes of meaning-making in my own experience.
It will be informal and practice-based, with a short, gentle writing invitation for participants to try out some of these approaches in relation to their own research or practice.
About Alison Cable
Alison Cable is a writer and creative writing facilitator working in the field of Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP). She completed an MSc at Metanoia Institute with distinction, where her research explored writing and weaving as heuristic, arts-based methods for narrative inquiry, with a focus on midlife and story.
She has served as Co-Editor and Board Member for Lapidus International and currently facilitates reading and writing groups in community and educational settings, including The Reader and the London Literary Salon. She is interested in creative writing as a reflective and exploratory practice, particularly in relation to experience, identity, and change. She is particularly interested in poetry, reading aloud, and shared reading, and in conversations about literature and how stories are told and retold.
Joining the event
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89827230742
Meeting ID: 898 2723 0742
Please note that this event will be recorded. The recording will be available for a limited time after the live event. Please allow a couple of working days for us to process and upload the recording after the live event.
For questions before or after the day of the event, please contact Flo on membership@lapidus.org.uk (responses on Tuesdays and Fridays). For queries on the day of the event, please contact mel@write4word.org.
About the Lapidus Living Research Community
The Lapidus Living Research Community (LLRC) meets on the first Saturday of every month via Zoom to discuss all things research, with a focus on qualitative arts-based research practices, theory and methods.
All Lapidus members are welcome, regardless of research experience. LLRC events are free and no tickets are required. Use the Zoom link above to access the event.
Looking to build deeper connections within the Lapidus community?
The Lapidus One-to-One Networking Carousel is a simple monthly networking initiative designed to encourage meaningful, one-to-one conversations in a relaxed and informal way. Rather than attending a large networking event, you’ll be matched with another Lapidus member or two, for a conversation arranged at a time that suits you.
Whether you’re hoping to exchange ideas, reflect on your practice, explore different approaches to writing for wellbeing, or simply meet people within the community, the Carousel offers a welcoming space for thoughtful connection and conversation.
Each month, members can sign up via a short online form. After the sign-up deadline, participants will be paired and introduced by email. From there, it’s entirely up to you how you’d like to connect — online, by phone, or even in person where practical.
The Carousel is especially suited to members who enjoy the one-to-one conversations that can be harder to find in traditional networking events. Conversations can be informal, reflective, practical, creative, or professionally focused — the format is intentionally flexible and member-led.
You are welcome to take part as often as you like, and we’ll do our best to match you with someone different each time.
Upcoming dates
Sign-up deadline: Monday 8th June, Monday 6th July, Thurdsay 6th August, Monday 7th September 2026
Introductions will be sent by email the following Tuesday or Friday.
Please note: By signing up, you agree to your email address being shared with your matched partner(s) for the purpose of arranging your conversation. Participants are responsible for arranging their own one-to-one call or meeting. While we will do our best to make thoughtful matches, Lapidus cannot guarantee availability, compatibility, or ongoing contact between participants. Participation is voluntary, and members may withdraw from future rounds at any time.
Photo by Dylan Ferreira on Unsplash
Join Lapidus International...
…from as little as £3.50 per month.
As a Lapidus Member, you are part of a supportive, international community who believe in the power of using words to enhance and transform.
You’ll receive a monthly newsletter, get discounts on events and training, have access to our online library of Lapidus journals and more. All for as little as £3.50 per month!
Lapidus News
Our vision
In these times of global upheaval, where words can be debased, Lapidus International will not compromise.
We know that writing endures as a way to express suffering and joy, healing and belonging in the intersection of personal circumstances and social conditions.
Through practice, research, publishing, and partnerships, we recognise words and writing as an accessible force for wellbeing, activism and therapy.
Our membership reflects the voices of all communities, including those who have been discounted, prohibited, displaced and under-served.