Writing the Wisdom explores the effects and emotional impact that trauma and abuse have on a person’s life whilst also bringing together religious, spiritual, pastoral and therapeutic understandings. In a partnership between a church minister and an accredited counsellor, Barbara Glasson and Penny Johnson have used creative writing for wellbeing with women survivors of childhood trauma, including organized ritual abuse, a subject that still remains largely hidden from our society.

The poetry and prose that have been produced during these creative writing workshops may help those who have lived through such devastation to feel less isolated, by giving them the opportunity to read about others’ experiences.

Writing the Wisdom also explores church practices that are unhelpful for those who have experienced abuse. Language and litany, listening and witnessing, healing, forgiveness and wisdom are all discussed, in the hope of enabling faith communities to look more closely and honestly at our way of life and to be mindful of the difficulties that some survivors of childhood abuse face.