In the World of Words: Updates from The Therapeutic Poet
A li'l snap shot of what I am up to.
This is an email of not quites again. I’ve written one of these before, except I’m not quite sure when that was. See, the not quiteness is that fundamental.
So, to begin, here is a video announcing more details of Mindfest, which I mentioned last month. It’s not quite fully edited and not quite as polished (look at that watermark!) but it is on brand with my not quite vibe this month, clearly. It is not quite scripted… you may be able to tell.
The website is not quite ready, with details of all of the amazing speakers we have managed to bag, but there is a highly unflattering video still of me mid-blink on the website, so it’s worth a visit just for that. You can see that here:
Seriously though, I am very excited about the number and calibre of speakers that we have coming to Mindfest and it is such ridiculously good value for money. If you are in the area please book and even if you’re not, we are videoing all the speakers so you can still book and have access to the recordings.
I recently attended a couple of talks online through A Disorder for Everyone. They have their own online festival on 22nd September, challenging the culture of diagnosis and disorder. I wrote a couple of reviews for the talks which I attended which you can read here. One of the reviews, though, is… you guessed it, not quite on their website yet.
I am in kahoots with two other wordsmiths here in Dorking and we have cunningly named ourselves The Guerrilla Poets. There was much discussion about whether we should be gorillas or guerrillas, but the idea was that we would ‘poetry bomb’ our local town by posting up fun poems to cheer people up rather than leave banana skins on the pavement to trip people up. We have NOT QUITE got around to that yet, but Simon (Guerilla 1) has booked us a venue for an open mic night…
I have also agreed with Mark (also of the now infamous Guerrilla Poets) to write and perform a show called ‘You should write a poem about that.’ Here is the blurb that we will use when we have booked the Martineau Hall at Dorking Halls for 21st October as part of Mole Valley Arts Alive… which we have not quite done yet. Please admire the alliteration.
A particularly pleasing poetry pairing of popular poets Mark Barnes and Jacky Power.
Whilst Mark doesn’t look like a poet, he uses this cunning disguise to entrance audiences with his word play and rhyme. Jacky, on the other hand, has all the flowy scarves a poet or therapist could ever need; some of which she may model on the night as she endeavours to find a word to rhyme with purple.
Come join them as they pair up to find all of the things that they should write a poem about…and have. From relationships and parenting to environmental issues and mental health, Jacky and Mark will riff off each other to give a thought provoking evening, all in rhyme. With Mark’s endorsement from Giles Brandreth and Jacky’s previous success at Edinburgh Fringe Festival what more reason do you need to attend?!
I know I know, I should have all this sorted so that you can eagerly click a link and buy your ticket, yet I have not quite managed to do that in time for this newsletter. C’est la vie ma petit, c’est la vie.
I’ve been merrily writing about shame and wonder and boredom and the freeze response to my paid substackers, and I even managed to plan ahead so that I scheduled one to be sent out whilst I was on holiday. To say I am proud of this foresight and follow through is a wild understatement.
I’ve a few speaking events lined up. I am speaking to a wellbeing team at the NHS on 12 step recovery as part of the work that I have begun to do with Visible Recovery. My opening line is that there is no such thing as addiction…now how can an addictions therapist say that with a straight face? Well, here’s a little rabbit hole moment if you are interested.
When I was studying my MSc in addiction psychology and counselling one of the first modules was around ‘What is addiction?’. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistics manual of mental disorders) is used by psychiatrists to diagnose patients. Since its inception it has had varying ways of describing alcoholism.
In 1952 alcoholism and drug addiction were described as personality disorders. In 1968 it was changed to alcoholism and drug dependence. Then during the Vietnam war 20% of the troops became addicted to heroin. It was no longer feasible to put addiction down to personality as the addicts from the Vietnam war highlighted that environment had a part to play. When they came back from the war 5% remained addicted.
In 1987 in the DSM 3 the word ‘disorder’ was used. Now there was substance use disorder, substance abuse, substance dependence. In the DSM 4 we had substance related disorder, substance dependence, substance abuse and substance use disorder, with varying subtleties on behaviours that constituted the classification of each of these conditions.
In 2013 the DSM 5 had reduced down classifications to substance related and addictive disorders.
This confusion means that the misunderstanding of addiction continues and so does the stigma that rides along with it. It also means that, strangely enough, it often gets underdiagnosed.
Aaaaaaand we’re back in the room. This is why I am an advocate of A Disorder for Everyone, which aims to point out the problems with medicalising emotional distress and disorder diagnosis. Which kind of brings me on to this poem that I posted after hearing the news about Sinead O’Connor last week. I began writing this poem after Caroline Flack died, added to it with the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp case, continued it with the Megxit saga and then added another verse last week.
I am also preparing a talk on emotional wellbeing for a school early September. I am using 2 poems in the talk to illustrate how appearances can be deceiving and to talk about ‘mental illness’ from the perspective of a nervous system/trauma response. The two poems are called ‘Poppy’ and ‘Max’.
“Poppy’s crazy! Poppy’s cool!”
‘Poppy sometimes bunks from school.’
(Poppy will back chat with passion.
Poppy has her own sense of fashion.)
“Poppy’s crazy! Poppy’s cool!”
‘Poppy sometimes flunks at school.’
(Poppy lets herself in at night.
Poppy’s parents scream and fight.)
“Poppy’s crazy! Poppy’s cool!”
‘Poppy chooses to act up in school.’
(Poppy’s dad looks at her that way.
Poppy knows what she mustn’t say.)
“Poppy’s crazy! Poppy’s cool!”
‘Poppy’s to be expelled from school.’
(Poppy’s secretly a secret keeper.
Poppy wishes she could’ve told a teacher.)
“Poppy’s crazy! Poppy’s cool!”
(Poppy’s safest place was school.)
‘Max is quiet! Max is perfect!’
(Max excels to feel he’s worth it.
Max has boarded since he was 9.
Max is stoic; doesn’t cry or whine.)
‘Max has focus! Max has vision!’
(Max is found doing his revision.
Max knows to avoid the cupboard.
Max acts like he isn’t bothered.)
‘Max is clever! Max is bright!’
(Max swallows those screams at night.
Max knows big boys don’t cry.
Max knows what he must deny.)
‘Max is special! Max is wise!’
(Max survives through perfecting lies.)
And then finally I am doing a talk online on estrangement at the end of September to a group of therapists.
I love doing talks and performing poetry, so if you have any contact who may be interested in me doing a talk for them, please pass on my details
Needless to say, my time to record another series of the podcast is squeezed and I could really do with a producer at this stage, but I need funds to be able to afford one! The podcast is a passion project of mine and I hate to see it slide, so I’ll have to have a think about that!
There you go folks.
Oh, as I have been terribly poor at promoting my book, here is another link to that. It has a bunch of 5 star reviews… who am I to disagree? Although it is not quite Christmas yet, it’ll be here in a jiffy so think on and bag your loved ones the gift of a lifetime.
Sales pitch over.
I do hope that this email finds you well. Life is still strange 3 years on after the pandemic, the news is frightening and it can feel like we have no respite, but we do have each other.
That’s it for now,
‘Til next time.
Jacky xx
Love this update on all those plates you are spinning! Mindfest sounds great and much needed.