“Stories shared became sharing a piece of oneself, cultivating creativity and experiencing a sense of accomplishment and pride for work done, the acceptance of good days and bad, and expressing curiosity and encouragement towards each other’s work,” according to Eileen Byrne, Senior Occupational Therapist, speaking about ‘A Flake of My Soul,’ a new collection of poetry produced through a creative writing project supported by HSE Waterford Mental Health Services in partnership with the Waterford Healing Arts programme and supported by Rethink Ireland and Creative Waterford.

Developed by the Friday Writers group and facilitated by poet, Lani O’ Hanlon, working with HSE Senior Occupational Therapist Eileen Byrne, the poetry collection was launched in recent weeks as part of the Well Festival of Arts and Wellbeing.

Eileen explained how “this group of Friday Writers explored our senses and worlds, inside and out. They wrote about and described treasured family objects, music memories and the physical actions of everyday tasks. Under the guiding, nurturing and fostering direction of Lani O’ Hanlon, each writer grew in confidence and skill as they created and shared pieces of their own writing each week. They developed their writing craft, from free-writing sessions to the editing process.”

Running from February 17 to 22, the Well Festival of Arts and Wellbeing celebrated the benefits of participation in the arts for everybody and was presented by Waterford Healing Arts and Waterford Libraries and funded by the HSE, Waterford City and County Council and the Arts Council.

Co-ordinated by Aisling Kennedy from the Waterford Healing Arts programme, the Friday Writers group met at the Réalta Centre for Arts and Health, University Hospital Waterford over recent months. Participants, who availed of the opportunity through the local HSE mental health services, were new to writing. Throughout the group’s meetings, participants learned to explore the world around them and to use their observations to write poetry.

Eileen noted how “the HSE was very pleased to partner with the range of people involved in this project. Creativity is hugely beneficial from an Occupational Therapy perspective in exploring self-identity, in nurturing connectedness with others and the world around us, while promoting a sense of well-being. Each of these elements was certainly evident throughout this creative programme.”

Drawing attention to one testimony from a participant, Eileen explained how it underlined the experience of ‘A Flake of My Soul.’ The participant explained how “it awakened something in me. I could look forward to meeting the group. At the very beginning, I was there with a book and a notebook and a pen thinking: what will I write? And then Lani said: What can you see? What can you smell? What can you taste? What can you hear? Within two weeks, we knew it was a confidential space, but it also opened up the writer in me. We trusted each other. We shared each other’s writing. We got feedback and the feedback was positive, but it also showed us other ways we could write things and that was positive for us. Now, I'm looking around in my life, recording things on my phone and sitting down and writing and seeing what potential that would have for a poem.”