Write to Life

Freedom from Torture's therapeutic creative writing group based in the London centre, called Write to Life, provides clients with a creative outlet for their experiences and a way to explore the torture from their past and the difficulties of living in exile. It has evolved as the longest-running therapeutic writing group for torture survivors in the world.  

'When I write in the workshop, it's much better than in my house, because the room is full of community for me. I feel my mind relaxing even if I don't understand everything.' 

Aso, a Write to Life group member 

The Write to Life group was established in 2000 by award-winning playwright Sonja Linden. Film-maker and novelist Sheila Hayman took over in 2004, realising that this work deserved an audience, and that the writers needed their stories to be heard. Sheila broadened the group's horizons as group co-ordinator. 

Write to Life's 20 members now read at a variety of festivals and, through their writing, work to correct misconceptions and myths about asylum seekers and refugees. They serve as Freedom from Torture ambassadors. In September 2010, group members participated in ‘Feast on the Bridge’ over the River Thames, where they wrote about a memorable meal, cooked it and then performed their readings to passerbys at the Thames Festival.

'The Write to Life group has many purposes – assuaging survivor guilt, rebuilding self-respect, giving voice to the voiceless and, above all, taking control of calamitous and destructive memories – all intertwine powerfully. As one writer put it, the rapt attention of an audience is like a mirror in front of her, reassuring her that, after all the horror and degradation, she is still, powerfully and triumphantly, alive.'

Sheila Hayman, Write to Life co-ordinator