To Label or not to Label? by Helen Boden

My idea was to introduce some exercises that I would myself use in 'mental health' (but also in mainstream) settings, invite the authors to participate in them, and then debate  their 'creative' and 'therapeutic' advantages and setbacks, and the pros and cons of using them with client groups with mental health problems. I deliberately had two contrasting approaches: one which uses the immediate environment in a site-specific way; and one with an internal rather than external focus, that uses the breath as a relaxation device, and a means to explore the rhythms of our speech and language.

In the morning, as well as being privileged to use the imaginatively converted Old Sheriff Court, and hear the inspiring presentation from Caroline  Bowditch, Scottish Dance Theatre's Agent for Change, I was facilitating the breakout workshop on the use of writing and storytelling in mental health settings. The morning had included a fascinating exploration of terminology and labels, which provided a usefully synchronous link into my first exercise. This initially involved walking around the venue and compiling lists of things one liked, disliked or felt indifferent towards, just noting and naming them, before choosing one item to write about from a variety of perspectives, and then finally in the first person, from its own point of view. The process is adaptable for practically any timescale and is deceptively simple: sometimes just paying attention to details in the environment and to the sound and look of their names can be sufficient to distract from personal unease and lengthen the attention span to allow the further creative development to take place.

A great deal of discussion followed the exercises. Some of the author-facilitators attending were clearly accustomed to, and comfortable with, participating in writing groups themselves, but one or two were understandably reluctant to openly share the products of a short writing process with their peers. I find amateur writers, whether identified as having disabilities or not, are usually very eager to read out their work to each other, once they get over initial nerves and self-consciousness. They don't see it as a private first draft in the same way a professional writer, who is used to 'going public' only when they've worked on something to satisfaction, does. And here were twelve professionals, asked to read out the fruits of five-minute scribbles to their peers - so all credit to them for so gamely participating! It's also true, however, that the more one practices short 'writes' in response to prompts, the more accomplished one becomes at quickly producing engaging material that one is satisfied with and that others will enjoy hearing. I'm continually astounded by the inventiveness of what writing students come up with in response to these kind of exercises - and that's what they are, exercises: like a musician's scales or an athlete's warmups, invaluable whatever one's level of experience. And, of course, it's always good to practice oneself the kind of approaches one facilitates.

We closed by starting a third exercise, that combined both 'external' and 'internal' stimuli. On a future occasion I'd do more of this kind of thing - those authors who already had experience in the mental health field already had a wealth of appropriate exercises which they could usefully put to the test with their peers. And those who have previously only worked in the 'mainstream' will nonetheless have material that could work equally well in a mental health setting with little or no adaptation. Sometimes, especially if there's also a support worker available to attend the group, the best approach can be  just to use the kind of material you're comfortable with, rather than trying too hard to adapt for a specific client group, or anticipate what all the pitfalls might be and what boundary issues might arise It's also surprising how many people one encounters in supposedly  'mainstream' creative writing groups who have had mental health problems - and they're just the ones who choose to confide in you. Writing is inherently therapeutic, and increasingly I just use exercises that I like, and that have helped me, creatively or personally, regardless of how the client group is officially classified or labelled.

Dr Helen Boden is a freelance writer, editor and facilitator based in Edinburgh. Her writing includes poetry and fiction about landscape and identity. She is an experienced leader of courses and workshops on subjects including writing for wellbeing, writing and walking and writing and visual art in a wide variety of artistic, community, healthcare and environmental settings. She has won an engage Scotland award for her work with a mental health group.