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The Clearing – Poetic Medicine Circle

Poetic medicine is the use of poetry to help us explore, express and make sense of our inner lives.

Long before the consulting room, people turned to poems in times of difficulty: to give suffering a shape, and to find a way back to themselves.

Poetry can speak where ordinary language fails us, particularly in those thresholds of life where the old maps no longer hold: grief, burnout, illness, change, or the quiet undoing of a life we thought we had built.

A poem can allow us to speak through fragment and image, and sometimes to say the thing we have been carrying but couldn’t quite name.

You don’t have to be creative. You don’t have to know anything about poetry.

You just need to be willing to listen.

Through poems, reflection and gentle creative exploration, we can discover new ways of seeing ourselves and what we are going through.

And we don’t have to do this alone.

Programme Details

A clearing is a place in the woods where, for a while, the trees open and you can see differently.

The Clearing Poetic Medicine Circle is a place to pause. To listen. To find words for what has been difficult to name. To encounter yourself in the company of others.

Over twelve Thursday evenings, we will walk through a carefully held seasonal journey.

We begin with arrival.

We move into the darker ground: grief, loss, what has been left unspoken, and the parts of ourselves we sometimes keep from the light.

Then we turn.

Towards mercy. Towards hope. Towards homecoming.

And finally, towards joy – arriving there as the year itself begins to turn back towards the light.

The journey is not about forcing ourselves towards a particular outcome. It is about making space for whatever is present, and allowing poetry to become a companion along the way.

 

What happens in a session

Each Thursday evening follows a gentle, familiar rhythm.

We arrive.

We settle into the circle and leave the outside world behind.

We listen.

A poem is read aloud, giving us something to meet together.

We reflect.

There is quiet time to notice what the poem stirs or reveals.

We write.

You are gently invited to respond in your own words, with protected time to write privately.

We share.

We move into small groups where there is space to be heard and witnessed.

We return.

We come back together and close the evening as a circle.

You never have to perform, produce a polished poem or share something you don’t want to share.

This is poetic medicine, not a poetry class.

The words don’t need to be clever. They only need to be true.

Join The Clearing

This is for you if…

  • You are moving through a period of change or uncertainty.
  • You are carrying grief, loss or something that feels difficult to put into words.
  • You feel emotionally or creatively stuck.
  • You want space to reflect more deeply on your life.
  • You are curious about poetry but don’t consider yourself a poet.
  • You are looking for a small, thoughtful community rather than a conventional course.
  • You would like to explore your inner world in a gentle, creative way.

 

The Container

The Clearing is not a drop in programme, and it is certainly not a course you dip into. It is a closed circle of no more than fifteen people who begin together and walk to the end together. Your steady presence is not only for you; it is what creates the safety that lets everyone else go deeper. This is why we ask that you commit to being there for as many of the twelve evenings as you possibly can. When the season begins, our circle closes.

 

Your Commitment

The full season of twelve evenings costs £210, and offers something individual therapy cannot: the experience of being witnessed while walking alongside others.  Places are limited to fifteen, and once they are gone the circle is closed until the next season.

Not quite sure, or have a question before you commit? Send me a message before you book; I would rather you arrived at The Clearing with your questions already answered. If you would like to join but the single payment is difficult, tell me that too, and we will find a way.

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“When the inner and the outer are wedded, revelation occurs” — Hildegard von Bingen