Writing Groups Information
The development of individual or collective writing fragments:
1. Exploring Identity Through Writing:
In this group, participants will delve into the intricate layers of identity—race, culture, and personal history. Guided by reflective writing prompts, we’ll uncover and articulate the unspoken narratives that shape our lives. This process fosters understanding and empathy, which are crucial for personal growth and professional inclusivity. Each session encourages the development of both individual and collective writing fragments, building a mosaic of shared experiences. "Writing is like finding yourself," Virginia Woolf once mused, and here, we embrace that journey earnestly. Drawing from previous sessions on race and mental health, we transform writing into a sanctuary for dialogue and self-discovery.
2. Healing Justice Through Words:
Tailored for those navigating the turbulent waters of mental health and depression, this group employs writing as a therapeutic tool. Participants explore their emotional landscapes through structured sessions, transforming pain into prose and uncertainty into clarity. The process allows for creating and sharing personal and group writing fragments, facilitating a mutual healing journey. Woolf’s belief that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" underscores our emphasis on creating a safe, supportive space for each writer. Past themes have included mental health and performance poetry, bridging inner turmoil with creative expression.
3. Professional Development and Creative Articulation:
Focused on individuals in academia or any professional realm, this group hones the craft of proposal writing and professional narratives. Participants refine their skills in creating compelling, coherent, and persuasive texts vital for career advancement and scholarly success. The group fosters a collaborative spirit while enhancing personal expertise by developing individual and collective writing fragments. Virginia Woolf said, "Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written largely in his works." This group channels that sentiment, utilising reflexive writing techniques to enhance the clarity and impact of professional documents. Previous sessions covered PhD proposal writing and race, bridging the gap between personal experience and professional articulation. Each group draws on the dynamic interplay of introspection and expression, reflecting Didion's reflective yet piercing narrative style. Whether your goal is personal elucidation or professional refinement, these tailored sessions promise a profound journey into the heart of your own story, culminating in a poignant collection of writing fragments that tell a cohesive, collective narrative.
Please complete the contact form on this website for further information on joining (a (w) riting group.
"Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in a human condition.
A Writer's Diary
Virginia Woolf
Stet clita gubergren
TA101:
Writing #OurSelves: A Collective for Diverse Realities within Communities of Praxis: The Black Edition
How do we write from spaces never designed for our truths? we survive them—and in surviving, might yet transform them. Cultural praxis—the lived embodiment of theoretical understanding through cultural action and reflection—shapes our diverse realities of identity, but what happens when these realities collide with institutional expectations? When whiteness moves through professional spaces like invisible weather, what storms gather in its wake? When silence masquerades as professionalism, whose voices remain unheard? As Lorde (1984) reminds us, "I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood" (p. 40).
For whom do we first write, if not ourselves? What act of reclamation occurs when we refuse to perform our wounds for academic consumption? How might publication adhere to relational ethics that challenge the violence of silence? Baldwin (1962) knew that "not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced" (p. 8)—but what changes when the facing becomes writing? What emerges when subterranean voices rise, when we position ourselves as vulnerable observers implicated in the very narratives we construct? Is the act of writing both witness and testimony, and how might it resist the extractive gaze that would turn our experiences into data?
Over eight sessions, we'll employ a saccading approach—sharing diary extracts, notes, photographs—learning from one another to write for performance, for therapeutic process. What family myths must we remember, and what myths must we unmake? How do we negotiate contracts that honour rather than constrain? Through Substack, we'll create a collaborative archive of what Butler (1993) might call "the ploughing under"—the breaking open of ground that "makes space for what was never meant to grow in such soil" (p. 228). When publication transforms experience into evidence, how do we retain ownership of our narratives? This space offers not just community but the radical possibility of writing ourselves into existence on our terms. As Woolf (1929) observed, "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman" (p. 51)—and how many other identities remain unnamed, unexamined in our practices? How might we curate our experiences for a publication that refuses to be packaged for consumption, that insists on the integrity of the voice behind every word?
References:
Baldwin, J. (1962). As much truth as one can bear. The New York Times Book Review, p. 8.
Butler, O. (1993). Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows.
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Crossing Press.
Woolf, V. (1929). A room of one's own. Hogarth Press.
For further details - see contact form
CTA Writing Group
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Writings (selected publications)
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Proust
Moutsou, C., & Siddique, S. (2024). Lying and truth-telling on the couch: The sense of touch in the consulting room. In C. Moutsou (Ed.), Dialogues between Psychoanalysis and Architecture: The relational space of the consulting room through the senses (Chapter 3). Routledge Publications.
Siddique, S. (2024). Observing and Consulting in the Digital Aquarium. In C. Moutsou (Ed.), Dialogues between Psychoanalysis and Architecture: The relational space of the consulting room through the senses (Chapter 10). Routledge Publications.
Siddique, S (2024) A Psychoanalytic Anthropological Exploration of Tracing the Singularity of Things and (Re)membering Fieldwork Nuances - (preparing for publication).
Siddique, S.,& V.R.Dominguez (2021). Anthropology in the Consulting Room: An Interview with Salma Siddique by Virginia R. Dominguez. American Anthropologist, 123 (1), 179-183, 2021.
Siddique, S., (2017). Ellipses: Cultural reflexivity in transactional analysis supervision. Transactional
Analysis Journal, 47 (2), pp.152-166.
Siddique, S., (2015). Bhaji on the Beach: Teaching Relational Ethics in India. Man in India: an international journal of anthropology.
Siddique, S.,(2012). Storymaking: In-between anthropological enquiry and Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, 14 (3), 249-259.
Siddique, S., (2011). Being in-between: The relevance of ethnography and auto-ethnography for psychotherapy research. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 11 (4), 310-316.
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