Write to Learn — not Learn to Write

Write to Learn

NOT
Learn to Write
www.gilliebolton.com 1

Why Reflective Practice Writing?

‘The life without examination

is no life’
Plato


Why Reflective Practice Writing?

‘The unexamined fact is like a
rattlesnake. It’s going to
come after you.’

Joan Didion

Why Writing?

‘The progress of any writer
is marked by those moments
when he manages to outwit
his own inner police system.’

Ted Hughes


Why Writing?

We write
before knowing what to say
and how to say it,
and in order to find out,
if possible.

Jean-Francois Lyotard 1992
Philosopher

‘Things come out
because the story lets them out’
Physician-writer

‘Stories are a form of everyday theorising’
Max Van Manen


A Family Doctor’s Story
The family asked to meet me. Their daughter
had recovered from meningococcal
septicaemia, and they wanted to know why I
hadn’t diagnosed it when they saw me that
morning six weeks ago at the GP surgery. … My
stomach wrenched with anger and frustration.
Can’t they see? … There was nothing that
morning to indicate meningitis or septicaemia.
… As the date for our meeting drew closer, that
black churning bitterness was still there, and I
realised I had to do something. … .

A. Munno, British Medical Journal 2006

…I decided to write the story of the family’s
complaint from the point of view of the parents.
The first line came easily: “She nearly died you
know. Our daughter nearly died”. At that point
my perspective on the complaint changed. I felt
the parents’ fear, and I understood their terror. …
The complaint wasn’t about diagnostic skills or
statistical probabilities but about a family trying
to make sense of the horror of nearly being
ripped apart forever.
By thinking about the complaint from the
family’s point of view, I understood that my role
in the meeting wasn’t to defend but to listen.

A. Munno, British Medical Journal 2006

Ethics and Values

If Munno’s patient’s parents found out about his writing, they’d
probably feel profoundly grateful as it enabled him to approach
them ethically and empathetically,
with espoused values consonant with his values-in-practice.

Munno was exploring his own understanding and perceptions,
doing it carefully and respectfully.

Reflective writing work is undertaken privately, and discussed
only with carefully chosen confidential peers or tutors.


A story is an attempt to create order and security out
of a chaotic world.

But for our experiences to develop us - socially,
psychologically and spiritually - our world must be
made to appear strange.

We, and our students, must be encouraged to
examine our story making processes critically:
to create and recreate fresh accounts of our lives
from different perspectives, different points of view.

Exploration of experience, knowledge, values,
identity is what matters,
not any attempt to arrive at a 'true' account.

Why Fiction?

‘It’s under the mask of fiction
that you can
tell the truth’

Gao Xingjian


Privacy

‘Having a private space in which to record
things as you go along is helpful.
I have found that I understand things better
by writing them down.’

‘You don’t have to worry that you have used
the right words or spelt something incorrectly
you can build up to a more formal statement
later.’
student midwives
University of Wolverhampton

Community
‘An online group quickly develops a sense of
collegiality, especially if the tutor is a participant, and
when a climate of respect has been created,
learners become able even to challenge each other
and the tutor. They begin to see themselves and
others differently.
…
An e-portfolio provides a critical thinking space which
can move users out of their comfort zone. They can
be encouraged to take risks and so progress further.
That also applies to tutors!’

Julie Hughes, e-portfolio practitioner

‘Poems…
profoundly alter the man or woman
who wrote them.’

Dannie Abse 1998
Physician Poet


‘I like poetry because
it has to do what it wants.

I can’t make it do what I want.’

Physician-writer


The Death of Simon Mark Purvis MD

The grown-ups stand around watching.
Grown-ups know what to do.

Is that Simon lying on the pavement?
He has got blondie hair like Simon's.
A boy has been run over, another kid says.

Is that Simon lying on the pavement? He was walking in front of me.
Mrs Bailey puts a blanket over him - but I can still see his blondie hair.

She looks at me but before she can turn quickly to the other grown-ups,
I can see she's scared.
`Send Mark away.'
What have I done wrong?

The grown-ups know what to do.
They send me away.

I run ahead alone.
Trying to find Simon.
I might not recognise him.
Pulling kids by their shoulders - no that's not him.
I speed up when I hear the ambulance siren.

`Simon's been run over.' Pete Williams said.
I run away, trying hard not to believe him.

How can Pete Williams tell who is lying there,
anyhow I saw him looking for his brother too.
Surely I would have recognised my own brother.

My teacher says `Simon will be in his classroom'
But he isn't, so she smiles and cuddles me, warm and soft.
`It's alright Mark, they call ambulances for sprained ankles these days.'

When he came into the classroom everyone stopped and looked.
He didn't have to tell me.
I said `Simon's dead', and he nodded, unable to speak.
Mark Purvis MD

I had never before in detail talked about what I was
feeling at the time when Simon died.

Now I have written, I can and do talk about it…. .

The writing has made me feel completely different
about Simon's death, has made me deal with it in a
different way. I can now see I wasn't responsible.

The time was right for me to write.

I didn't know I was carrying so much guilt. Now I
know I don't need to carry it. I will cope differently
now when a child patient dies.
Mark Purvis MD

‘This writing allows you to touch things you
otherwise couldn’t.’

‘It is an opportunity to inhabit the unknown.

Reflective practitioners


Dr Brendan Boyle
My First Writing Course

I found myself terrified, empathising
with my phobic/ anxiety patients.
What had possessed me to enrol?

It was incredibly reassuring to
discover you need no writing skills. By
what seems to be simplicity itself we
are led into unlocking memories,
thoughts, reactions, experiences.

Dr Brendan Boyle
I was haunted by the prospect of
the blank page staying blank, but the
almost mystical unlocking process
created by those simple words:
“Write anything that comes into your
head for 6 minutes”
was, and indeed remains, baffling.

Hard to believe, but that acts as the
key to access parts of our thinking
that most of us seldom use.

What is Free Writing?

For 6 minutes
Write whatever is in your head
Do not stop writing
Do not think about it
Grammar, form, spelling, handwriting do not matter
It might be a list or jump all over the place
(our minds do skip about)
Or it might be brilliant
If you get stuck write ‘I am stuck’ until you’re unstuck
YOU WILL NOT BE ASKED TO SHARE IT
It’s private!

‘I found
the reflective writing process itself
was where the bounties lay,

and NO amount
of teaching about reflection
could help me.’

A Reflective Practitioner

How to Write Reflectively

Grammar, form, spelling, handwriting do not matter
(You can always correct them later if you need)
It’s the content which is significant

Write what is in your heart, thoughts and memory

Write what you know already
(though you might not know you know it)
without planning or forethought


Reflective writing is a conversation with the self

You are not listening to yourself as you write.

While writing, the page offers no head-nodding, smiling,
frowning, grimacing, no immediate response of questions,
affirmation, shouts or screams.

You listen to yourself after you write, on rereading.

Writing creates tangible footprints to be followed,

but this interlocution is beneficially postponed.

What is Reflective Writing?
When you trust writing to take you where you need
to go

When you value yourself to explore and express

When you take responsibility for your writing
(your tutor or boss aren’t responsible)

When you give generous time to yourself to write

When you have positive regard for patients and
colleagues you write about

Writing – Reflective or Therapeutic?

Writing works

for anyone

professional
patient
student
client

Self Confidence
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is
our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We
ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? …
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world…. . We are all
meant to shine… . And as we let our own light shine, we
unconsciously give other people permission to do the
same. … Our self perception determines our behaviour.
If we think we're magnificent creatures with an infinite
abundance of love and power to give, then we tend to
behave that way, and the energy we radiate reflects those
thoughts no matter what we do.
Marianne Williamson

Take Care
You are about to enter a danger zone
Wear protective clothing around your heart
Take off your shoes

Writing can seriously damage your sadness
Writing can seriously damage your nightmares
You are in danger of achieving your dreams

Once started you won’t be able to stop
Nor will you want to
And others might catch it too

You are in serious danger of learning you’re alive
You are in serious danger of laughing out loud
You are in serious danger of loving yourself

If it gets in your eyes, consult your loved ones
If it gets in your mind, cancel your therapist
If it gets in your heart, hold on tight
Gillie Bolton

Write to Learn — not Learn to Write

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