Appendix

The Cohen Park Exercises

Christine Cohen Park

In envisioning the Writing and Groups course, I had in mind something close to a groups course on a counselling programme, combining both experiential and theoretical learning, while incorporating the additional experience of being part of a writing group that mirrored as closely as possible those which students might lead in the future. To this end, the writing exercises were focused on exploring aspects of the self.

The writing group needed to have its own integrity and unique self-sufficient sequence of exercises, and yet, because it was situated half-way through the Masters, there were particular considerations to take into account. The students had already done a fair amount of self-reflective writing by the time they reached Writing and Groups, and so needed new ways to be stretched in their writing. They were also going to be doing these exercises in an environment involving formal assessment, but this was later removed, so the experience of being in a therapeutic writing group would at best be only partial.

The writing exercises I devised were therefore uniquely tailored to the Masters. They are not exercises I would transpose, per se, to a therapeutic environment proper, because of the element of challenge involved, which in the MA learning environment could be contained and was appropriate. But individual elements of the sequence might be used to good effect in other contexts, and I pinpoint below those I think appropriate for general use with a vulnerable or potentially vulnerable client group.

Two kinds of exercises were employed: those undertaken at home between each meeting of the writing group; and those undertaken in class. I have found, over many years of running writing groups that there will be some participants who benefit from the solitude and time for reflection that writing outside the class allows, whilst others may be too distracted to get much down on paper between classes but surprise themselves by what they can achieve, when prompted, in a spontaneous class situation. My aim, therefore, was to provide a variety of opening prompts, in response to which students could harness and experience their creativity at their own pace and in their own way. The home exercises and the class exercises were linked, so that the longer home exercises were informed by further class work. Thus, if a student felt they had not captured what they were trying to in the work done at home, they might get nearer to it impromptu in the class setting.

Though all the exercises were focused on exploring the self, they were devised in such a way as to provide the maximum writing freedom to students half way through a creative writing Masters. For example, if a student was preoccupied with a novel she was writing and reluctant to engage in further self-reflection, she could approach the exercises as if from one of her characters' perspectives. Students could give the exercise titles the broadest possible interpretation, taking them literally or metaphorically. Prose, poetry, drama – any form of writing was acceptable.

There were five fortnightly sessions and thus four assignments (the first given on the first group meeting) as follows:

• This is who I am, now

• This is where I shelter, how I shelter

• This is where I risk, what I risk

• This is what I remember

Ideas in the first three of these furthered the intention to broaden the scope and possibilities. The ‘now’ in the first exercise was there to allow the students to think about themselves in a time perspective, and also for their writing about themselves to allow for the possibility for change that the statement suggests, which softens it perhaps and makes it slightly less threatening. The second and third exercises are extended by a second phrase, again with the idea that students had the choice of engaging with one or the other. The final exercise was a prompt to come up with one strong memory of being in the group, to fill out the details as a novelist might, bringing the moment alive so that it could become a shared memory.

The shorter, in-class exercises, which dovetailed with, and informed, the first three of the primary exercises, were as follows:

• This is who I am to …
and then a list of possibilities, some playful or fanciful (with students being encouraged to make up their own):

• Finding shelter – imagining a place of shelter, and then the experience of being in it when it is assailed, and then of ultimately finding it strong enough to provide protection

• Risking – looking at two poems, one by John Fox and one by Martin Jude Farawell, addressing the topic of risking being listened to, as a prompt for students to write about when they had been truly listened to and what it had felt like, and to provide inspiration for taking the risk of being heard in their writing

In the sequence of exercises, reflection on ‘who I am’ came first, because for our students an exploration of who the self is at the moment of writing was key. The exercise concerning shelter was placed second to enable students to be in contact with their internal home base during the inevitable emotional buffeting of the group situation, especially in its formative phase, before trust was established and relationships formed. The invitation to consider risks could be interpreted in many ways, including risks in their writing, both in content and form, or personal risks they might take; for some this became a prompt to ‘dig deeper’. Consequently this exercise was situated in the fourth of the five sessions, only after the group was established and in its working phase. The final exercise provided the opportunity to bring a scene to life, in other words to be a practitioner of the writing craft, while creating an offering that might enable others to relive the moment, thus contributing to consolidation as the course moved towards its close.

This sequence of exercises was used by all tutors teaching Writing and Groups. It had sufficient elasticity and yet containment to fit the unique format of the creative writing and personal development programme, and yielded rich results, in terms of students' personal development and the creativity and quality of writing, year on year.

Outside of a teaching environment such as the one described, these exercises would need to be used with caution, and with modifications. In health care envi-ronments the first exercise may well feel too intimidating, though not in all instances. The short in-class version provides a softer option, though any such direct focus on the self may be too intrusive, and even inappropriate in certain circumstances. The shelter exercise has a broader application and could help participants feel more at ease in the group, in writing about their own capacity to create safety. The risk exercise – germane to the Masters – may be not so central to a different client group, and once again the group leader would need to exercise caution in considering its use. The ‘remembering’ exercise may provide creative consolidation, as a group draws to its close and its participants mourn its impending demise, though not all client groups have the capacity, or in some cases energy for this type of recall. And whilst consolidation and closure are important to any writing group drawing to its close – particularly with vulnerable participants – there are many alternative ways to approach this: memories may be verbal, for example; or they may be ‘scribed’ by the leader; or they may take the form of a poem in the writing of which everyone has participated.

The sequence outlined above constitutes the Cohen Park Exercises, copyrighted by me, Christine Cohen Park. Should you have any queries concerning their use, please contact me via www­.ce­lia­hun­t.c­om.

© Christine Cohen Park