Acting Chair of Lapidus: Barbara Bloomfield has been a couples and family counsellor and supervisor for more than 20 years. Before that, she had a career as a journalist in newspapers and the BBC. She has worked in China and Central America as a foreign correspondent for radio stations and has written four books about relationships. She taught creative writing part time at Bath Spa University and this year was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to work with couples and families affected by autism, in Brisbane, Australia.

Barbara enjoys being the Lapidus Director of Groups and hopes to meet more Lapidus members on her travels this year. She is always inspired by the creativity and variety of our work and by our practitioners and their many ways of bringing together creativity and mental health. She runs creativity groups in Bristol and all over the UK.  www.barbarabloomfield.com

Lapidus Treasurer: Liz Ottosson is a writer and translator who has lived in Sweden and Australia as well as London, but is gradually making her way home to her northern English roots. Her stories focus on connection and memory, both lost and found, and have been published in various anthologies. In 2016 her flash fiction, “Grace”, about Grace Darling, won the Segora International Vignette Competition.

Other passions include music, although her music taste is mainly stuck in the 1990s. She is a firm believer in the power of music and words to heal many wounds and inspire new ways of living in our alienating, crowded and divided modern era.

Director of Research: Kim Etherington- Kim Etherington PhD is Professor Emerita at the University of Bristol, Fellow of BACP, semi-retired BACP senior accredited counsellor and supervisor, and accredited EMDR practitioner in private practice.

She has been a member of Lapidus since 2005. Writing has always been an important personal resource that she has integrated into her work with clients. She is an experienced journal reviewer and editor for counselling journals. Currently Kim shares her role as Research Director for Lapidus with her longtime friend and colleague Jeannie Wright, and she is an editor for the new research journal LIRIC. In this role she works to encourage and mentor those new to publishing research and is happy to receive early ideas, abstracts and drafts from anybody intending to contribute to the LIRIC journal.

Details at: http://kim.etherington.biz 

Director of Story: When her sister Promila died in 2000, Kiz Bangerh experienced the power of expressive writing to heal grief and trauma. A graduate of Metanoia’s Masters in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, she currently facilitates writing for wellbeing with: offenders, homeless people and those experiencing poor mental health. Having researched Rap’s therapeutic potential for her thesis, in 2012 she founded Hip Hop HEALS - a project that promotes Hip Hop’s healing powers within the helping professions. During her previous career, Kiz taught English and Drama at secondary level before moving on to education and outreach in the cultural sector. She still tutors Looked After Children today and works freelance as a supply teacher in her spare time.

Director of Community: Charmaine Pollard is a counsellor, life coach and certified poetry therapist. She completed her poetry therapy qualification with the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy, USA under the brilliant supervision and mentorship of Victoria Field. Charmaine has facilitated poetry therapy groups in schools, colleges, prisons, clinical settings and the wider community. Her groups are based on reading poetry, discussing it and writing in response, in order to promote health and wellbeing. As director of story, Charmaine will enable writing practitioners to develop a much safer and more supportive environment. The aim is to ensure that all writing group participants can write safely, reassured by the knowledge that their stories will be heard and acknowledged appropriately by group leaders/facilitators who are trauma-informed.

https://www.charmainepollardcounselling.co.uk/writing-and-poetry-therapy/

Secretary: Jeannie Wright has been a member of Lapidus almost since its beginnings. Now in a Lapidus group based in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, we identify with Robin Hood. She has taught and researched in several universities and practised writing for wellbeing in community agencies internationally. She has been a reviewer and editorial board member of journals mostly connected to talking therapies and is delighted to be part of the new Lapidus journal, LIRIC. Reflective writing in counselling and psychotherapy’ is now in a 2nd edition with Sage. Editing books like ‘Writing Cures’ and producing other publications that show how fantastically useful creative writing is will continue and she is now writing more poetry and fiction.

Director of Strategy and Governance: Kathyann Goddard says: "I worked for the NHS across divisions for about 20 years. My first job was a receptionist at a GP surgery where I remained for eight years, gaining promotion twice and leaving as a Health Promotion Officer. I have worked at a number of hospitals, the last being a Mental Health Trust. I gained my degree in International Business and Caribbean History and then went into the world of project management. Having a learning difficulty, the road to this position was not always paved but definitely interesting."