Writer-researcher-facilitator: An integrative model for creative writers working in wellbeing contexts and beyond

In this paper we introduce an integrative model for working as a creative writer-researcher-facilitator (W-R-F). During the process of designing a new MA in Creative Writing and Wellbeing, we realized that we wanted to reexamine the complex interrelationships between the different strands of our work, in order to provide a framework within which our students could explore their own evolving practice. The model that we present here has emerged from this ongoing process of reflection and conversation in relation to our own practice, and was subsequently developed collaboratively with a group of practitioners working in the context of writing and wellbeing. We have found that creative exploration of these three interdependent aspects of our own lives—writing-researching-facilitating—can help us to recognize practical ways in which to integrate them into a more cohesive whole. We believe that this model also suggests ways for writer-researcher-facilitators to support one another in sharing best practice and in advancing developments in the field. We hope to begin a further conversation that will be immediately applicable to those working in the area of writing and wellbeing, but also to anyone negotiating the challenges, tensions and creative synergies inherent to living as a writer in the world.