Workshop about putting past to page

AN upcoming event organised by members of the Ballarat Writers group is aiming to help budding memoirists hone their craft.

A workshop will be run by Melbourne-based psychologist Peter Quarry, working from his 2022 debut book If I Were You: A Psychologist Puts Himself on the Couch.

Quarry said he hopes attendees will come away from the two-and-a-half-hour session with an idea of how their memoir can improve their lives.

“A lot of people do it because they want to record family history but there’s a lot more we can gain about writing about our lives, whether it’s a memoir, diary, or journal,” he said.

“My view is based on the work of an American social psychologist James Pennebaker, and he looked at the psychological and physical benefits of writing about your past.

“He found people who do that, their blood pressure goes down, their immune systems are strengthened, they sleep better, there’s less depression and anxiety.”

With more than three decades’ experience as a psychologist, Quarry began writing his book in 2019, influenced by the psychology of aging and the work of psychotherapist Victoria Howard.

He said some of the workshop’s exercises will tie into his book, influenced by Mr Pennebaker.

“He found those that benefited the most from writing about their past wrote in a particular way, and that’s what I tried to introduce in my workshop,” Quarry said.

“One of the exercises is to get people having an internal dialogue with themselves. The other thing is to have one pose questions to themselves and to actually unpack it.

“I’ll draw on my book in giving examples but I very much try to work with the material the workshop participants bring to the event.”

Each attendee will receive a free, signed copy of Quarry’s book and the workshop is for 5pm on Thursday, 27 April at the Sebastopol Library.

Tickets are $25 for concession and Ballarat Writers members and $50 general and can be booked at bit.ly/40DknpX.