IPTN

Welcome to Irish Poetry Therapy Network - IPTN, a non-profit organisation that provides an environment where participants explore at first hand, through the use of poetry therapy and bibliotherapy, the healing power of poetry as a means of identifying and dealing with various life issues.

Find out more about us and how to join our network by checking out our site.


Confidentiality Agreement: IPTN Sessions are held in a confidential space. Participants, discussions and poems are only published with agreement. These sessions use poetry as therapy and are not psychotherapy sessions.

Monday, 1 July 2019

Healing through Poetry Programme


HEALING THROUGH POETRY 
12th OCTOBER 2019

Wellington Park Hotel, 21 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 6RU


PROGRAMME

9.15 Registration

9.30 Intro and welcome Shelley Tracey, IPTN chair

9.45-11.15 Workshop 1 Carol Boland 'Travelling Through Time with Poetry'
‘In every adult there lurks a child— an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the personality which wants to develop and become whole.’ Carl Jung
The concept of the inner child is not a new one. It is present in mythology where heroes are children who are threatened in some way. Carol Boland travels back in time, through the poems of CarolAnn Duffy, to explore how childhood wounds continue to constrain adult life, with particular reference to John Bradshaw’s observation that, ‘For many of us, finding our inner child is like finding home for the first time’.

11.15-11.30 Coffee break

11.30-1.00 Keynote: Paula Cunningham 'The Uses of Constraint'
Paula’s session will begin with a short reading from her work, followed by a reflection on Auden’s famous statement: ‘Poetry makes nothing happen’. We will participate in a creative activity with the possibility of drafting a poem.


1.00 -1.45 Lunch

1.45-3.15 Workshop 2 Theresa Kelly 'More to me than meets the eye'
In this workshop we will write from the Trickster Myth, taking One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest as our prompt. We will explore the constraints modern society can place on the individual as a result of its views on mental health issues. Working with symbols of our own shadow side we will aim to begin to integrate that which we most dislike in ourselves and so bring liberation from imprisonment that unconsciousness invariably leads to.


3.15-3.30 Tea break

3.30-5.00 Workshop 3 Mari Alschuler 'Creating a breathing space: Writing and collage for self-care'

The concept of self-care is one that we hear much about these days, but many people are confused by what it actually means in practice. We all lead increasingly busy lives and, in this hands-on workshop, we will explore methods for using this limited free space for our self-care. These methods can also help poetry and mental health therapists to heal from bearing witness to often-traumatic client stories
We will begin with a short meditation as an introductory activity. This will be followed by the exploration of poetry relating to self-care as prompts for writing. We will also make a collage based on a self-care theme, and share and discuss our work.



5.00-5.15 Conclusion



BOOKING INFORMATION
Fee : €65 (IPTN & Lapidus members)
€85 Non-members (please note that if membership fees are paid at the same time as the conference fees, the lower rate will apply)
Membership fees: €15 Fees payable in € to Irish Poetry Therapy Network

Conference fees and membership fees may be paid electronically.
Please put your name on the payment reference
Permanent TSB
Account number: 86899860
Sort code: 990643
IBAN: IE90IPBS99064386899860
Enquiries and cheques in € to: Bernie Walsh, Treasurer IPTN, 60 Hazelwood, Gorey, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Places are limited, so to ensure you will not be disappointed, please reserve your place by emailing irishpoetrytherapynetwork@gmail.com

Meals available from the hotel


HOTEL ACCOMMODATION
The hotel is holding some bedrooms available for conference delegates for 11/10/2019.
The price per single is £75.00 B&B and double or twin will be £95.00
Guests can book their room by either calling or emailing reservations quoting block code IPTN111019. The hotel requires a credit or debit card from guests at the time of booking for guarantee.
Any rooms not booked from the allocation block by 13.09.19 will automatically be released – any booking after this date will be subject to availability


Healing through Poetry - 8th Annual Conference

HEALING THROUGH POETRY -

 8th Annual Conference         

Saturday 12th October 2019 

9.15-5.00pm

This year, IPTN’s Conference takes place in Belfast

Join us for a day of personal development through the worlds of poetry and creativity. Qualified and experienced facilitators working in Ireland and the USA will lead these experiential sessions. No writing experience is necessary and work will not be critiqued.


Key Speaker
We are delighted to welcome award-winning poet Paula Cunningham, who will explore the theme of ‘Uses of Constraint’. Paula’s session will begin with a short reading from her work, followed by a reflection on Auden’s famous statement: Poetry makes nothing happen. We will participate in a creative activity with the possibility of drafting a poem.


Bio:
Paula Cunningham was born in Omagh and lives in Belfast. Her pamphlet A Dog called Chance was a winner in The Poetry Business Competition. Paula’s book Heimlich's Manoeuvre was shortlisted for the Fenton-Aldeburgh, Seamus Heaney Centre, and Strong Shine First Collection Prizes. Paula’s poems have been widely anthologised in Ireland and beyond, appearing in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Vol. 5, d The New Irish Poets and Best British Poetry (201).  In 2011 she won the Hippocrates Poetry Prize (NHS section) and was shortlisted in the Edwin Morgan Prize. Paula has also written plays for Tinderbox and BBC Radio 4, and a short story appeared in Faber’s Best New Irish Short Stories 2004-5. In May 2019, Paula gave a poetry reading at the10th Hippocrates Conference on Poetry and Medicine and Hippocrates Awards, Newcastle, UK. Paula currently holds an award from the Arts Council of NI.


CONFERENCE DETAILS 
Venue:  Wellington Park Hotel, 21 Malone Rd, Belfast BT9 6RU
Date: Saturday 12th October 2019

Fee :  €65  (IPTN & Lapidus members)        
          €85 Non-members (please note that if membership fees are paid at the same time as the conference fees, the lower rate will apply)
Membership fees: €15 due September
     
Fees payable in € to Irish Poetry Therapy Network

Conference fees and membership fees may be paid electronically.

Please put your name on the payment reference
Permanent TSB
Account number: 86899860
Sort code: 990643
IBAN: IE90IPBS99064386899860

Enquiries and cheques in € to:
Bernie Walsh, Treasurer IPTN,
60 Hazelwood, Gorey,
Co. Wexford,
Ireland.

Places are limited, so to ensure you will not be disappointed, please reserve your place by emailing  
irishpoetrytherapynetwork@gmail.com

Meals available from the hotel

HOTEL  ACCOMMODATION
The hotel is holding some bedrooms available for conference delegates for 11/10/2019.  
The price per single is £75.00 B&B and double or twin will be £95.00
Guests can book their room by either calling or emailing reservations quoting block code IPTN111019. The hotel requires a credit or debit card from guests at the time of booking for guarantee.
Any rooms not booked from the allocation block by 13.09.19 will automatically be released – any booking after this date will be subject to availability.







Tuesday, 16 April 2019

IPTN AGM



IPTN's Annual General Meeting will be held in Dublin on Saturday 22nd June 2019 at 11am in the Spensor Hotel, on North Wall Quay.
A Peer Group session is planned for after the meeting.

All welcome to attend.

Sunday, 28 October 2018

Writing For Wellness - Group Poem

This is the group's first attempt at a group poem following the first day of Writing For Wellness:

Poems like birds flying around the world
I have never had the patience for knots
the muscle of broken words engulfed
in misunderstandings
warm to my good nature
to self-sabotage and self-flagellate
praising dandelion petals comes easy
when I learn to be.

How long does the tide take to transform glass
the inner grain of gold
the gold is deep within
from the silence comes a cacophony of wisdom
the complex whole, the wet mass of veins
verbs, nerves, brain cells, words
rhythmic crescendo lusty in gale
she's just responding to the signals from the deep
greedy satiated.

Be a tree, remember your sapling days
being grateful
letting go is the hardest
accept difficulty and change is essential for growth
enjoy the gifts of the sensual world.


Saturday, 20 October 2018

Writing for Wellness Conference

We are delighted to announce that IPTN 7th annual conference, in collaboration with iaPoetry and Lapidus International, has been a resounding success. A full report on the conference will be published in our next Poetry Therapy Journal and, in the meantime, here is the first of our group poems composed over the weekend.

A group poem is one written by each participant adding a line on the spot, as they feel moved to do so.

Not of the wild sea

Into the blue, blue of the ocean
where the gardens are lush and
the trees sag with mango
my dyspraxic hands fumble
crushing the fragile fruit
I watch with my dream eye
and the world is drowned in tears
for our joy is but one
massaging out the unwanted
like time within a dream
you need to finish out your song
where half-written works of art are complete
the wish-keeper they called me
this is the saddest kiss
I sit here on my patchwork cushion
and float skywards
igniting spider web.