Write for rehab

I am a bit late in the day with this post, but so much has been going on over the bank holiday weekend – namely moving house. Not me, but my parents. Lots of packing, lifting and running around, but thankfully they have settled in a space they love and remain literally around the corner. Moving is one of the most stressful things in life, alongside marriage, birth and divorce – and believe me I’ve done those all at once with moving house as well and I can testify that the stress is real! But this led me to ponder – does creativity help to alleviate stress – and the answer is most emphatically, yes.

 

I’ve previously written about, and featured in a magazine talking about writing as a release for anyone’s emotions, maybe a form of therapy for some people, perhaps a way to say the things you can’t say as yourself if you write fiction? 

 

Yesterday, I was reminded once again that all forms of creativity serve a vital purpose. It’s not ‘fluffy’ or messing around – there are real jobs in creative pursuits available, as well as it being beneficial to mental health and well-being. I was once again working in a prison – this time as an audience at the opening of their creative arts centre. A visiting theatre company had spent time working with the men, exploring the works of Shakespeare and affording them opportunities to perform. I was blown away by the visiting actor’s one man show, performing several intense scenes from Hamlet and portraying all of the characters convincingly single-handed. He also had lived experience of incarceration, which was a fascinating story of a fall and redemption fuelled by his connection with the arts. 

 

I knew already that the prisoners gain valuable experiences by expressing their thoughts in the form of stories and poetry, and through art or non-fiction, having worked with them to produce a fabulous book, but the drama company offered real work opportunities and prisoners also spoke about how they had gained self-confidence after hitting rock bottom, with one who had dyslexia and severe anxiety finally gaining a GCSE grade 8 in maths as well as being able to speak in front of a crowd for the first time in his life. He was also acting as the sound technician yesterday.

 

I have recently experienced some toxic comments online during the recent election period. Some parties and their supporters, (who shall remain nameless but I think you all know who I’m talking about here,) place little value on the arts and arts funding. One comment was ‘Tutor, actor, writer, tells us all we need to know.’ I think he thought this was an insult, but yes, it tells you what you need to know – I’m successful doing the work I love, I benefit other people, I educate young people and I am able to contribute to the economy and the well- being of myself and others. If that makes me a ‘leftie’ I am proud of that and don’t see it as an insult at all. Better that than limit and stifle people’s options and talents. 

 

Creativity can help to rehabilitate offenders and set them on a more positive path. But of course, creative pursuits, whatever they might be, are beneficial for anyone. In my work as a tutor, I am well aware of the despair some parents and children feel when they constantly have to re-sit GCSE, especially young people who have any disability or access need. It can be humiliating and exhausting, if you have to resit GCSE’s in English time after time. My starting point is to develop some creative thinking and writing and come up with tricks and tips to prepare and pass the exam. But it’s never just exam centred. I try to find the best way forward so that the student can also enrich their learning and find some level of ‘like’ if not love for the subject which will make their confidence grow. Part of the English gcse includes a spoken element and this is something we do work on, creating ‘personas’ for the most anxious child to get through. I’m aware though that this is easier to do with one student at a time, and I am sorry for the teachers struggling in overcrowded classrooms with little or no support for additional needs and the way that parents are constantly dismissed and their children left to flounder, unsupported. I could write about my views on this for ages, but on a positive note, yesterday, served as yet another reminder that we should value creativity in all its forms. There are real careers in the creative sector, and I’d like to think, because creative people tend to be less judgemental and narrow-minded in general, the creative sector can give opportunities to people who might struggle in other areas of working life.  Without a doubt thought, human life without books, and art and films and music, would be a very dull bunch indeed and their lives sometimes would literally not be worth living.