Online Courses and Workshops

Book here for online courses and workshops.  As always we aim to host the country’s best poets and workshop leaders, with a strong emphasis on good mental health and wellbeing, and hope our new online offering will be accessible to those who can’t make it to the Poetry Pharmacy itself.  We are working on putting together an exciting program of innovative course leaders and content!

Subsidised places on our online courses and workshops are available –

for details please email

hello@poetrypharmacy.co.uk

How to Leave a Body – An Online Workshop with Holly Winter-Hughes

Sold Out

Wednesday, October 15 · 7 - 9pm

Join Holly Winter-Hughes as she gently guides you through the process of using writing as a way to connect with ourselves and our embodied stories. She will also share key poems from her collection How to Leave a Body (Verve, May 2025) and talk about her writing process.

Holly used poetry to reconnect with her body after years of dissociation and embodied trauma. She is passionate about bringing the stories held in our bodies to the light, finding fresh way to tell them to deepen personal and community connection.

In this celebration of our bodies and our stories, we’ll bring our somatic experiences into our work, for more visceral, sensuous and engaging writing. This session is all about connection, healing and community.

The session will focus on autonomy and only going as deep as you wish in your own writing. You will be encouraged and supported in taking ownership of your words.

Her work has been commissioned by various organisations including Apples & Snakes, Live & Local and Arvon. She has performed extensively across the UK including at Ledbury Poetry Festival, for Raise the Bar, for Cheltenham Poetry Festival and for the BBC. She is passionate about raising the voices of underrepresented people and as such, is the founder and CEO of The Word Association CIC (who have published over 40 anthologies from marginalised communities with Holly at the helm). 

She is currently in the final stretch of a Masters degree in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, and starts her PhD in restorying the body in autumn 2025 at University of Birmingham. 

Holly is a widely published writer, most recently appearing in Atrium, Clarion, Impossible Archetype, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Lapidus and Tears in the Fence.

"Holly Winter-Hughes' visceral writing turns the human form inside-out, mapping the contours of trauma, abuse and hard-won resilience. It urges the reader to follow and 'Breathe deep to the creak of your heartwood'. Darkly imaginative and pearled with fresh phrase-making, these are poems that compel attention and linger."

John McCullough

www.hollywinterhughes.com

When the Night Speaks with Leah Larwood

Between Sleep and Sky: Making Friends with Your Dreams Through Poetry

Book Here

Monday 8th December, 6pm - 8pm

Dreams arrive each night - mysterious, strange, sometimes unsettling, always rich with meaning.

In this workshop we’ll explore how poetry can become a bridge between the dream world and waking life.

Using creative prompts, writing exercises and gestalt-inspired ‘poetry therapy’ approaches, we’ll discover how poetry can help us listen to, honour and integrate our dreams.

No previous writing experience is needed. Bring your curiosity, your notebook or dream journal, and a willingness to explore the creative potential of your night world.

Experience a taster of a poetry therapy session, themed around dream work…
1. Explore new ways to recall your dreams
2. Make friends with your dreaming world
3. Discover the therapeutic benefits of turning dreams into poems
4. Learn how to transform dream images into poetry or prose
5. Practise writing exercises that support self-awareness and creativity
6. Discover how dreamwork and poetry can support wellbeing, balance and wholeness


What We’ll Cover

Using a mixture of didactic learning, writing exercises and discussions…
• Dream Journaling: tips for remembering and recording dreams
• Making Friends With Dreams: gestalt-inspired ways of meeting dream figures
• Poetry as Integration: turning dream images into short poems or love letters
• Dream Characters & Dialogue: writing from different perspectives
• Liminal Dreaming: using the threshold states of sleep for creativity
• Dream Incubation: setting an intention for tonight’s dream.

• You don’t need to be a poet - this workshop is more about expression, not literary accomplishment. In fact, the ‘poetry therapy’ stance offered in this workshop offers you the opportunity to explore more about yourself and processing your experiences from a self-growth point of view
Though if you are also a writer or poet, many participants do come away with inspiration for their creative projects.
• Sharing your writing or experiences with the group is optional
• The workshop is designed to be safe, supportive and confidential.


Pre-Workshop Invitation
Keep a dream journal (if you don’t already). Record your dreams in the days or weeks leading up to the workshop. Just a few sentences with the key outline: setting, dream characters, a couple of sentences about what happens and how you felt in the dream is enough. Please bring your dream journal with you. (Sharing your dreams is always optional.)

Leah Larwood is a
lucid dreamer by night and writer/poet, UKCP gestalt psychotherapist by day
(currently in advanced stages of training / undergoing accreditation process).
She is also a qualified mindfulness teacher and certified poetry therapist
(CPT) (awaiting accreditation).

 Leah is a freelance
wellbeing writer and contributor to Breathe, Teen Breathe, Planet Mindful,
Red mag
and Female First. Her debut poetry collection, Oneironaut,
published by Indigo
Dreams
is about dreams and sleep.

Coaching for Writers

Bespoke Coaching on Zoom with fully-qualified coach Julia Forster of Write Within

Writing a full-length work involves a long haul, and the journey to completion is rarely linear. Coaching is a powerful modality which supports and strengthens your creative practice so that you experience breakthroughs and create inner shifts in how you relate to your work-in-progress.

Book a series of five or ten online coaching sessions with our very own Poetry Pharmacy coach Julia Forster who specialises in working with poets and who has worked with hundreds writers of all genres to support and sustain their artistic practice. Explore your individual and singular gift to create.

How it works

Book an initial, free 30-minute conversation with Julia here and then decide which of the various coaching packages you’d like to book. Blocks of five sessions (£325) or ten sessions (£520) are available, with the option to add on a four-night writer retreat in the stylish Writers’ Cabin in Machynlleth, mid-Wales.

Coaching sessions are sixty minutes long, held on Zoom and at a frequency to suit you. Julia’s approach is strength-based and compassionate and is tailored individually to each client. 

About Julia Forster

Julia is a fully-qualified coach, specialising in coaching authors and poets, who also hosts writers on self-lead retreats in a Writers’ Cabin near Machynlleth, mid-Wales. With a career in publishing spanning over 25 years, she works freelance in PR for independent presses and is Co-Director of Being A Writer at The Literary Consultancy where she facilitates the group coaching programme, Amplify. Poets and poetry festivals she has devised PR campaigns for include: Deborah Alma; Dean Atta; Inua Ellams; Jacqueline Saphra and BBC Contains Strong Language.

She has published a novel What a Way to Go (Atlantic Books) and a book of non- fiction Muses (Oldcastle Books), while her poetry pamphlet is currently on submission.

To book a free 30-minute initial conversation with Julia and to find out more about the coaching and retreat packages available, visit: https://writewithin.wales/coaching/

“Julia has a special gift at understanding and encouraging others on the artistic path.”

– previous coaching client

Poetry Surgeries

A rare opportunity to work one on one with a professional poet

"Rhiannon was always so positive and clear in her feedback and I have come away with a host of new ideas that I would never have attempted without her support."

- Tina Cole

Writing a poem is a personal thing, but there are skills to be learnt too, especially where editing your work is concerned, and our Poetry Surgeries aim to help you through this process. They offer a rare opportunity to work one on one with a professional poet, who will address any specific difficulties you are having as well as giving in depth feedback on each poem.

Receive detailed one to one advice on up to four of your own poems from resident Poetry Pharmacy poet Rhiannon Hooson. Poetry Surgeries are by appointment and can take place either face to face at the Poetry Pharmacy, or online.  There is a £60 charge for an hour long consultation.

How it works

You will submit your work in advance by email, then visit the Poetry Pharmacy where you’ll receive private and detailed feedback on your poems over coffee. If you can’t make it to Shropshire, your surgery can take place online or via email!  

Our approach is constructive, supportive and positive, and you’ll go away with concrete ideas for your work as well as plenty to think about.

About Rhiannon

Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet, author and editor. She has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and her first book, The Other City, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award. In the last few years, she has been a Literature Wales bursary recipient, a Hay Festival Writer at Work, poetry editor of Creative Countryside magazine, and the judge of the PENfro festival poetry competition. She has a PhD in poetry from the University of Lancaster, and spent time living and working in Cumbria and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before settling in the Welsh marches. Goliat, her second collection, is out now from Seren.

Find out more and to book rhiannonhooson.com