Otherwise

The information on this page is for an ACC sensitive claims approved online group.  Your counsellor or psychologist can help you access the group if you have an approved claim.

Otherwise: A Takatāpui and Rainbow Creative Writing Group

This group offers a safe and welcoming creative space for Takatāpui and Rainbow communities.  Each session will follow a consistent structure to support safety and predictability, including a grounding check-in, introduction of the theme,  1–2 structured writing tasks, reflection and optional sharing.  The group will support Takatāpui and Rainbow kiritaki to develop and practise creative writing skills that can support self-expression, emotional regulation, agency, identity, connection and recovery.

Across eight sessions, kiritaki will experiment with a range of creative writing approaches, including free writing, poetry, fiction, metaphor, sensory writing, perspective-taking, letter writing and imaginative or speculative writing. Themes will include voice, embodiment, desire, identity, belonging, relationships, time and possibility.

Kiritaki will be supported to discover which approaches are useful to them and to develop a personal repertoire of creative practices that can be used independently beyond the group. Choice will be emphasised throughout, including choice about what to write, whether writing is autobiographical or imagined, and whether to share writing with others.

The group will follow a structured progression

Week 1 – Making a queer room: safety, choice, free-writing, fragments, introductions through writing.

Week 2 – Voice: experimenting with perspective, multiple voices and ways of speaking/not speaking.

Week 3 – Bodies: sensory writing and metaphor; body as landscape, weather, object or creature; embodiment without required autobiographical disclosure.

Week 4 – Desire: writing from wants, preferences, longing, pleasure and curiosity, broadly understood rather than limited to sexuality.

Week 5 – Queer time: nonlinear narrative, past/future selves, letters across time and alternative timelines.

Week 6 – Kinship and belonging: chosen family, relationships, place, creatures and other forms of connection.

Week 7 – Otherwise: speculative and imaginative writing; alternative endings and possible worlds.

Week 8 – Carrying forward: integration, reflection, identifying useful writing practices, and creating something to carry beyond the group.

Potential Benefits

Participants may:

• develop and practise a range of creative writing strategies for self-expression and emotional regulation
• demonstrate increased confidence in expressing thoughts, emotions, identity and experience through writing
• identify at least two writing practices they can independently use to support wellbeing following completion of the group
• demonstrate increased capacity to make choices about what, how and whether they communicate personal material
• report an increased sense of creative agency and confidence in their own voice
• experience increased connection and reduced isolation through participation in a queer-affirming creative environment

A little bit about sharing

This group is a writing and creativity space, not a trauma-processing group. Many of us carry trauma, and this will naturally shape how and what we write, but the focus here is on creative expression rather than sharing or processing traumatic material in the group.

Choice and pacing
You’re always welcome to write in your own way and at your own pace.

• Sharing is optional. You never owe the group your story.
• You may pass, share briefly, share an excerpt, or speak about your process rather than your content.

Mindful sharing
When sharing writing with the group, the group agrees to:

• Be mindful that this is a collective space with many nervous systems present
• Avoid graphic or detailed descriptions of violence, abuse, or traumatic events
• Share from a place that feels regulated enough to stay present in the room
• Use distance where helpful- e.g. metaphor, imagery, third person, or abstraction
• Pause or stop reading at any point, without explanation

Writing for the page vs writing for the group
Some writing is for the page only, some is for a trusted one-to-one space, and some is ready to be shared in a group. Part of our practice here is learning to sense the difference.

Confidentiality
What is shared in the group stays in the group. Please speak from your own experience and avoid sharing others’ stories outside the group.

Care and support
As facilitators we’ll support grounding and pausing if needed, but this group is not a space for trauma processing or crisis support. If something opens up that feels like it needs more support, we encourage you to take that back to your individual counselling – this group is a part of your bigger journey and it’s appropriate for there to be crossover between us and your counsellor.

Respect for self and others
As a group we agree to listen with care, avoid analysis or advice-giving, and trust that everyone is the expert on their own experience.