Apologies: Consultations are currently unavailable. Booking for them will start again in September.
A rare opportunity to work one on one with a professional poet, offering detailed insights into your work. Online or in person.
Bespoke Coaching on Zoom with fully-qualified coach Julia Forster of Write Within. Available online.
Consultations
Alternative therapy for your emotional ailments via poetry prescription.
Apologies: Consultations are currently unavailable. Booking for them will be available once more when we have the capacity. If you'd like to keep track of availability, do follow us on social media or our newsletter!
Deborah Alma ‘I think the combination of being carefully listened to; being taken to idealised places through the ‘consultation’, putting your feet up on the chaise longue and then having a hand-picked poem is always a winning combination. Everyone loves it; it has an effect both light and profound.’
How it works
You will be welcomed at the Poetry Pharmacy and ushered upstairs to the treatment room. Settle on the chaise for a gentle consultation with Deborah, and afterwards retire to the dispensary café with your prescribed poems for tea or coffee.
‘From the start I was overwhelmed by people’s responses, not just to the idea itself and to the theatre, but to the ‘therapy’ session. There is a magical combination of things when someone comes in: they put their feet up, sounds outside are hushed; it is a non-threatening intimate space.
I have been invited to do the work, or something tailor-made, in hospitals and in hospices, with vulnerable groups: people with sight loss, a loneliness charity, people with learning difficulties, survivors of domestic violence and others.’
Deborah Alma interviewed by Leslie Tate
You can see Deborah filmed by the BBC at work in 2014
In Person
£50
In-person consultations are by appointment and the price includes tea or coffee and some cake, a copy of The Emergency Poet – An Anti-stress Poetry Anthology, as well as some other suitable poetic prescriptions in a Poetry Pharmacy bag.
Please include your name and preferred date & time for your appointment and we will get back to you. Please note, in person consultations are not yet available in London.
Online
£30 - £50
If you can’t make it to Shropshire, then consultations are also available as an email exchange, a Zoom chat or by phone. You can purchase one at the link below.
Online consultations can include your prescription and a copy of The Emergency Poet through the post, or not as you prefer.
Poetry Surgeries
A rare opportunity to work one on one with a professional poet.
"Rhiannon was always so positive and clear in her feedback and I have come away with a host of new ideas that I would never have attempted without her support." -Tina Cole
Writing a poem is a personal thing, but there are skills to be learnt too, especially where editing your work is concerned, and our Poetry Surgeries aim to help you through this process. They offer a rare opportunity to work one on one with a professional poet, who will address any specific difficulties you are having as well as giving in depth feedback on each poem.
Receive detailed one to one advice on up to four of your own poems from resident Poetry Pharmacy poet Rhiannon Hooson. Poetry Surgeries are by appointment and can take place either face to face at the Poetry Pharmacy, or online. There is a £60 charge for an hour long consultation.
How it works
You will submit your work in advance by email, then visit the Poetry Pharmacy where you’ll receive private and detailed feedback on your poems over coffee. If you can’t make it to Shropshire, your surgery can take place over zoom or via email!
Our approach is constructive, supportive and positive, and you’ll go away with concrete ideas for your work as well as plenty to think about.
About Rhiannon
Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet, author and editor. She has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and her first book, The Other City, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award. In the last few years, she has been a Literature Wales bursary recipient, a Hay Festival Writer at Work, poetry editor of Creative Countryside magazine, and the judge of the PENfro festival poetry competition. She has a PhD in poetry from the University of Lancaster, and spent time living and working in Cumbria and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before settling in the Welsh marches. Goliat, her second collection, is out now from Seren.
Find out more about Rhiannon’s work at rhiannonhooson.com
Coaching for Writers
Bespoke Coaching on Zoom with fully-qualified coach Julia Forster of Write Within
Writing a full-length work involves a long haul, and the journey to completion is rarely linear. Coaching is a powerful modality which supports and strengthens your creative practice so that you experience breakthroughs and create inner shifts in how you relate to your work-in-progress.
Book a series of five or ten online coaching sessions with our very own Poetry Pharmacy coach Julia Forster who specialises in working with poets and who has worked with hundreds writers of all genres to support and sustain their artistic practice. Explore your individual and singular gift to create.
How it works
Book an initial, free 30-minute conversation with Julia here and then decide which of the various coaching packages you’d like to book. Blocks of five sessions (£325) or ten sessions (£520) are available, with the option to add on a four-night writer retreat in the stylish Writers’ Cabin in Machynlleth, mid-Wales.
Coaching sessions are sixty minutes long, held on Zoom and at a frequency to suit you. Julia’s approach is strength-based and compassionate and is tailored individually to each client.
About Julia Forster
Julia is a fully-qualified coach, specialising in coaching authors and poets, who also hosts writers on self-lead retreats in a Writers’ Cabin near Machynlleth, mid-Wales. With a career in publishing spanning over 25 years, she works freelance in PR for independent presses and is Co-Director of Being A Writer at The Literary Consultancy where she facilitates the group coaching programme, Amplify. Poets and poetry festivals she has devised PR campaigns for include: Deborah Alma; Dean Atta; Inua Ellams; Jacqueline Saphra and BBC Contains Strong Language.
She has published a novel What a Way to Go (Atlantic Books) and a book of non- fiction Muses (Oldcastle Books), while her poetry pamphlet is currently on submission.
To book a free 30-minute initial conversation with Julia and to find out more about the coaching and retreat packages available, visit: https://writewithin.wales/coaching/
“Julia has a special gift at understanding and encouraging others on the artistic path.” – previous coaching client