Every year, 30,000 Danes lose a loved one to suicide, many thousands more are affected as friends, work or schoolmates and more.
It’s been nine years since our youngest son took his life. Since then, everything has changed. For me, my family, so many around us.
We react differently in grief both immediately after and many years later. That’s why I believe it’s good that we can talk to each other and read about other people’s experiences.
That’s why I hold writing schools for those who have lost to suicide – this fall at Kunsten in Aalborg.
The writing school is supported by the North Denmark Region, Regional Council Committee for Regional Development and Innovation, and will be held at KUNSTEN, the art museum in Aalborg.
Eight Saturdays between September 7 and November 23, I will teach and in between coach the participants.
There will be presentations, also from knowledgeable guests who share their experiences of writing or otherwise being open about losing to suicide. We will be working from 10am to 3pm and will have coffee and sweets, sandwiches and water along the way. KUNSTEN has given us free access to the exhibitions on the days we are there, so I will actively include works in the teaching, and we can walk around and be inspired – among other things by the painting shown here: Else Alfelt’s “Large, bright world” from 1942. I believe that both art in itself and writing to others can be good tools for dealing with long-term grief.
I’m also sure that the community in the writing school will be good for those of us sitting there, but also in the long run for others who read the texts. The writing school is open to anyone who has lost someone to suicide, whether it’s a loved one, friend or colleague and no matter how long ago.
You need to bring your own laptop and have the courage to write and to be read.
It will be a safe group where we are loyal to each other and talk in confidence. We will always be in the same room at KUNSTEN, the Aalto meeting room, located in the corner of the bottom floor. There will be a self-payment of 200 kr. per Saturday per person. Sign up by writing a little about why you want to join us, your name and address and email it to me at charlotte.roerth@icloud.com
Watch TV2Nord’s feature about the writing school here
Program for the Writing School for Survivors of Suicide
Coming together on such a painful topic may seem impossible. But it isn’t. On the contrary, it is life-giving and empowering to be with others who know about the pain you carry – whether it is visible or not.
The purpose of the Writing School is to make life better for those who come to the school, but also for those who later read the texts. Whether you want to publish your text is up to the individual and is agreed upon along the way. The undersigned, Charlotte Rørth, is the teacher.
I’ve been a journalist since 1987 and have had a number of good jobs, including at NORDJYSKE 2003-2019. Last year I wrote in-depth interviews.
Since 2015 I have published five best-selling books on the taboo of faith, published in six countries.
I have given 350 lectures and led courses and retreats over a number of years.
We lost our youngest son to suicide in 2014. Teaching takes place at: KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Kong Christians Allé 50, 9000 Aalborg, www.kunsten.dk Participants meet 8 Saturdays at 10-15 in the fall of 2024.
10.00-11.30 Presentation and conversation in plenary and groups. Coffee, tea and water.
12.00-13.00 Sandwich and walk & talk at the museum and in the sculpture park.
13.00-15.00 Presentations and preparation of home assignments. Coffee, tea and water.
There will be a self-payment of DKK 200 for each teaching day at KUNSTEN. In addition to the 8 times five-hour course, participants get:
- Visits from inspiring speakers
- Professional teaching
- Detailed written and verbal guidance for homework assignments
- Personal coaching at KUNSTEN
- Online sparring along the way
- Reading through and personally responding to a text
- Educational texts for home reading
- Possibility of publication
The PREVIOUS program is set – but it will adapt to the group. Saturday, September 7: Introduction and welcome to KUNSTEN.
Setting expectations: What can I do? What do you want? Presentation and home assignment: What is it that I want to explore in myself by writing? What do I want the words I write to do to the person who reads them? September 14: “How I wrote” – presentation by Mai Bakmand, author of “Out of this world – A mother’s description of the first year after her 16-year-old son took his own life after five years of anxiety”, board member of the association Efterladte, journalist. Homework assignment wrap-up. How to help yourself (and each other) get started writing – and get better at it. Structure, culture and professionalism. And repetition …
Homework assignment summary: How you can help yourself. September 21: “Every story is unique, but why share the experience?” Lecture by Liselotte Horneman Kragh, counselor at NEFOS, author of “In the wake of suicide”, counseling pastor.
Presentation: How to write about what is difficult. What happens when you apply writing techniques to your own emotions? Concrete guidance.
Home assignment: Short text (2000 units) about the last time you were moved by the thought of the person who took their own life. October 5: What did writing do to you? What can it do to others?
Joint conversation about the homework assignment.
Proposal for deciding on the text you want to continue working on.
Brainstorm – why? Use it before, during and after. Guidance is provided and we try it out individually and together.
Lunch and time to walk around the meeting.
The actant model can help you both before and during. Guidance is handed out as a home assignment.
Appointments are planned for coaching with Charlotte. October 26:
Suicide is painful to talk and write about – how honest should I be? Can readers tolerate everything? Can I? Lecture by former football player Thomas Augustinussen.
Lunch and time to walk around the collection.
How’s the writing going?
Charlotte coaches individually. November 9: How language works. You’ll get tips and tricks to help yourself get better at writing, including writing exercises – almost like going to school again.
You get exercises in verbs, forbidden adjectives, missing punctuation marks and spelling – and in movement as the engine of language and our lives.
Charlotte coaches individually.
Lunch and time to walk around the collection.
Presentation for homework: How to review your own text with your cold eye.
Charlotte coaches individually. November 16: How to get your own language and become better.
How are you doing? Presentation on finding your own letters – and what happens when you apply writing techniques to your own emotions? Along the way and later? Professional coaching: How to make each other better gently and carefully and super-efficiently, but why? Testing in practice. Guidance will be handed out.
Lunch and time to walk around the meeting.
Charlotte coaches individually. November 23: Reading (voluntary). Joint response with focus on the future of the text. And yours. Christmas party and celebration.
