Memories, Dreams and Landscape: The Restorative and Formative Powers of Imagination
A writing and dreaming retreat at Tresillion House from Dinner on Thursday 29th February – Breakfast on Monday 4th March 2024
Maggie and Milly and Molly and May by E.E. Cummings (1956)
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles, and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
Whether you’re a writer or a dreamer, the retreat Memories, Dreams and Landscape is intended for anyone who wants to exercise their imagination. The retreat will be limited to eighteen participants with a professional team of three – it is curated by Jane Haynes with John Wedgwood Clark and Cornelia Hartman (please see below for CVs).
The experience will focus on individual development rather than group processes, so nobody will be expected to produce their ‘scribbles’ in a public forum!
We will also turn to a few of Shakespeare’s sonnets to juggle between the remembered and the imagined and to explore ways of accessing symbolic thought and the subconscious. Although we hope you will dream during the weekend, it’s not necessary to remember your dreams to participate.
The retreat will also include journal making, and everyone will be provided with the art tools necessary to create their private journal account of ‘Time’ during the retreat. Artist Cornelia Hartman will help individuals create journals, exploring the subconcsious through art and channeling their inner magpie.
In addition to this, there will be formal talks about active imagination and the elements of creative writing from both Jane Haynes and John Wedgwood-Clark.
There will also be organised visits to local seashore landscapes to provoke memories of childhood holidays, which act as a rich resource for memories.
This retreat is being generously subsidised by Tresillion House. Accommodation includes all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), wine and snacks during the day.
It is priced at £775 for single occupancy for four nights and £575 per person for a shared bedroom.
Yoga and breath work classes in the studio will be included in the price. It will also be possible to organise massages at an additional cost. Further information can be found on Tresillion House’s website here
Please contact Jane Haynes on jane@intheconsultingroom.com regarding any further information and to reserve a place. A deposit of 50% will be required which will be non-refundable after 1st January 2024.
THE RETREAT TEAM
Jane Haynes PhD:
Please go to the homepage of this website for a full biography.
John Wedgwood Clark:
John Wedgwood Clarke is a poet and academic born and raised in St Ives, Cornwall. He is currently Associate Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter and often works across the arts and sciences on collaborative projects. He has published three full collections of poems, Ghost Pot (2013), Landfill (2017) and Boy Thing (2023). His work has appeared in The Guardian, New Statesman, Poetry London, Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland among others. His TV credits include researching and presenting Through the Lens of Larkin (2017) and Cornwall’s Red River (2022), both for BBC FOUR. You can read more about his recent work on the mining-polluted Red River in West Cornwall at www.redriverpoetry.com
Cornelia Hartman:
Cornelia is a third-generation artist. She studied Haida Art and culture at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1996. Her first art teacher was: “My father and his studio neighbour, Eduardo Paolozzi. Eduardo’s definition of the creative process was: Disassemble like Haefestus. The God of the Forge. It melts there, it’s hot, but it’s not hell, it’s the devils kitchen, as Paolozzi would declare…”
Cornelia regularly updates her knowledge and training at various art schools and teaching institutions in the USA, Asia and France where she has a studio on the Cote d’Azure in Eze. She has a particular expertise in journal making for all levels of expertise.
In 2009 Hilary Mantel and I discussed Mind, Mood and Sleep at Dartington Festival. The London Magazine has now published the transcript…
‘Hilary and I met in 1995 and quickly became friends, bonding over our mututal respect for R.D. Laing. Hilary had been deeply influenced by him during her brief period as a social worker. I had worked as Laing’s personal assistant and helped to produce The Dialects of Liberation congress in 1967 before training to become a Jungian psychoanalyst.
Although we do not discuss R.D. Laing in this conversation, it was this connection that drew us into an immediate friendship when we first met for lunch at the Overseas Club in St. James’s.
Over the years, whether in or out of touch, Hilary was always tucked away inside my mind. Her words woven into the fabric of my being. I am certain she’ll continue to occupy a similar space in the minds of her readers. It fills me with joy to know that her written work will join the immortals on a plinth of a literary Acropolis.’
To see the full conversation, read on the London Magazine site here.
Blue Door Practice Event with Terry Real on How to Build Loving Relationships…
On June 26th there will be a #live #BlueDoorPractice #event with Terry Real on How to Build More Loving #Relationships: An Introduction to Relational Life Therapy for #Therapists, #Couples and #Individuals at One Birdcage Walk. Tickets available: http://ow.ly/mvb050NjTJq
Looking forward to the panel discussion for A Streetcar Named Desire at The Almeida Theatre on 26th January and looking back at the 1974 production…
Both images copyright John Haynes, 1974.
On 26th January, I will be part of a panel discussion at The Almeida Theatre.
Discussion on A Streetcar Named Desire at The Almeida Theatre on 26th January
I am delighted to be partaking in a panel discussion on A Streetcar Named Desire at The Almeida Theatre on 26th January.
“Undoubtedly our artistic climate is going to change through the world situation. . . . I think there is going to be a vast hunger for life after all this death—and for light after all this eclipse—
People will want to read, see, feel the living truth and they will revolt against the sing-song Mother Goose book of lies that are being fed to them.”
-Tennesee Williams, November 29, 1941
The following individuals will form the panel:
Dr Nick Losseff is neurologist at Cleveland Clinic London and The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He is best known for his development of Stroke Services in London. By working in in the field of brain injury he is all too well aware of the devastating impact that this has on patients and their families, and of the huge underrecognized mental health problems that run in parallel. He chairs a Physicians Health Committee at Cleveland Clinic London.
Dr James Arkell was an NHS consultant psychiatrist in Kensington & Chelsea in general psychiatry and in eating disorders till 2014. He provides occupational health support at The House of Commons and British Airways, consulting both pilots and MPs. He also holds an honorary contract at the Royal College of Art; he is a clinical teacher at Imperial College Medical School; he provides psychiatric support for Cleveland Clinic London. He has supported development at the Almeida since 2005.
Jane Haynes is a psychotherapist and writer. Lapsed from her Jungian psychoanalytic training she now works primarily through dialogue and relationship.
After Perestroika she spent ten years working in St. Petersburg as a consultant to the first Russian psychodynamic training. Originally trained as an actress, Jane abandoned her career after reading RD Laing’s The Divided Self.
Peter Hill is a nephrologist at Cleveland Clinic London with a general and specialist NHS practice based between The Hammersmith Hospital, The Charing Cross Hospital and The Royal Marsden Hospital in London. He met Professor Patrick Maxwell during this time in Oxford and carried out research as a Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellow at Imperial College London into how oxygen affects the kidney. Dr Hill has over 20 years of experience in nephrology and medicine. He has an expertise in hypertension, acute kidney injury, chronic renal disease, dialysis and genetic causes of renal disease.
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‘No Shrinking Violet’ The Spectator review of If I Chance to Talk a Little Wild: A Memoir of Self and Other
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Jane Haynes and Dr Jonathan Garabette to speak at Hastings Literary Festival on 17th September
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On 27th December I was interviewed on the Jo Good Show on BBC London. You can listen to the interview here…
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I contributed to a piece for Glamour on the repeat trauma of the pandemic and how to cope with it…
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Suzanne Duckett and her husband Andy came to see me for a couples menopause therapy session. Here’s her piece on it for the DailyMail…
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JANE’S PASSION FOR PROUST: Jane speaking on Free Thinking, Landmark: Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu
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JANE’S PASSION FOR PROUST: What’s so great about Proust? Jane Haynes in conversation with professor Christopher Prendergast about Proust and childhood at the Royal Society of Literature