Biography
We write before knowing what to say and how to say it, and in order to find out, if possible.
Jean-Francois Lyotard 1992
Expressive and explorative writing has the power to show its writer what they feel, think, know, understand, remember, observe, intuit, desire, believe. Since Gillie first began to discover this all her research and practice has been based around writing:
- Reflective Writing for Personal Development
- Reflective Practice Writing for Professional Development
- Therapeutic Writing
- Writing for Publication
Gillie began seriously researching about writing after a medical professor colleague thought it was her students' relationship with her, not the writing which made a difference to them. A determination to prove him wrong led to careful detailed observation and research. In all personal and professional development processes (and therapy and counselling) the personal relationship is key. But with writing, the primary personal relationship is with the self as first reader: the self becomes the vital interlocutor.
Reflective Practice Writing (Second Edition)sells worldwide, offering professionals and students dynamic methods which work, and are illuminating and enjoyable. One reported how her copy is broken backed, zigzagged with underlinings and margin notes and bristling with post-its. The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing has become a classic: a patient dying of cancer asked her husband to read it to her in hospital when she could no longer write. Writing Cures is trail-blazing therapeutic writing within therapy and counselling. And Writing Works gives writers the kind of advice and support they dream of. More books are on the way.
Gillie's eclectic publication list buzzes with academic papers in medicine (including The Lancet), education, higher education, action research, social work, therapy, counselling, medical humanities and literature and medicine, along with poems in poetry magazines and medical journals, articles in professional journals, and publications with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). She is associate editor to 4 journals, and contributed regular edited sections to Progress in Palliative Care (Health and the Arts) and the Journal of Medical Humanities (Literature and Medicine) (British Medical Journal Publishers)
Senior research fellow in Medicine and the Arts at King's College London University before she left to write and enjoy freelance consultancy, Gillie was a founder initiator and member of the Council of the UK Association for Medical Humanities.
Keynote speaker at many varied conferences worldwide - medical, literary, therapeutic, Gillie gives of her professional wisdom in a range of consultancies in Britain and abroad.
Early years in an Epping Forest village near London, in a seventeenth century farmhouse just up the hill from her grandfather's farm, and 2 years in Singapore, were augmented by school in Southwold, Suffolk. She now lives and works in Central London and Derbyshire's Hope Valley.
Social Anthropology at Cambridge University was a firm foundation on which to build work with people. Her tiny college was one of only 3 for women, and there were rather a lot of men?s colleges, providing another firm foundation.
- Last updated on 06/04/07 at 06:53 by Paul
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