Therapist/counsellor and PhD researcher, English Literature
Thesis Title: 'He looks at me with distaste. Plat du Jour - boiled eyes, served cold': The representation of shame and trauma in women's writing.
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Fiona Peters
Beth Wright |
About
I work in private practice as a therapist for individuals and for groups. I further undertake work (short and long-term) as a creative writing therapist, counsellor and a freelance consultant. I devise and plan therapeutic programmes for young people with substance misuse issues and facilitate creative arts therapy groups working with words, paint, clay and sand with adults and young people.
My MA at the University of Sussex in Creative Writing Therapy, was supported and fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for Professional Preparation (AHRC).
Areas of Master's research and training include: bibliotherapy, with particular interest towards both theoretical and practical research into narrative, dialogue and storytelling; facilitating therapeutic writing groups in healthcare, therapeutic, and in educational settings; an exploration of the interface between creative writing and personal development.
I trained as an interpersonal group psychotherapist at Bath University and Clouds House, where I further undertook a degree in addictions counselling.
Specialist areas of interest in bibliotherapy, shame and trauma - and in writing creatively and therapeutically out of anger, shame and silence.
Current Research: Shame and Trauma:
PhD doctoral research in trauma and shame which straddles psychoanalysis and English literature. The scope of my research will be to explore, in depth, the nature and context of shame - from author, to text, to reader. I am especially interested in ocular imagery, visual dynamics and taboos on looking and how the reader is implicated in the intersubjective relation of shaming. I pose the question: how do the dynamics of shame function within the crucial relationship between author, text, and reader?
My clinical work with women survivors of trauma will inform part of this body of research into the dynamics of shame.
Published work:
(Working Title) Forthcoming chapter in, 'Voicing Trauma and Truth: Narratives of Disruption and Transformation'.
Current academic writing:
A book on Jean Rhys and Shame as part of my PhD research.
Current Creative Writing:
A collection of semi-autobiographical grotesque fairy tales and short stories, which include 'writing back' to Shakespeare and Bruce Springsteen.
I am a lecturer and co-assessor on counselling courses for group work and also working with families and substance misuse.
I presented a paper at the first Global Trauma Theory and Practice conference in Prague, March 2011. This paper has been published.
Therapist for groups and individuals, Creative Writing Therapist & Freelance Consultant: MA. FdSc. BA (Hons). FDAP (Accredited) Registered Member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists MBACP and a member of Counselling for Children and Young People, CCYP.
Specialist area of work with young people and adults in crisis.
Email: jacqueline.dawson10@bathspa.ac.uk
