Books by Karen Holford

Karen Holford began her love affair with writing when she was 6. She started writing short letters and articles for the children's page in her local paper The Coventry Evening Telegraph. She was so delighted at seeing her words in print that she decided then and there that she wanted to be a writer. But her English teacher discouraged her from becoming a journalist, and so, instead of studying English at University, she trained as an occupational therapist. She enjoyed using her creativity to help people with acquired brain injury find ways to communicate, discover new interests and live more fulfilled lives. Karen worked as an OT in Oxford and then moved to Michigan, USA with her husband, where she studied educational and developmental psychology before working in Chicago at a community based brain injury rehabilitation centre. Once back in the UK Karen began writing articles for various magazines whilst bringing up a young family. She wrote her first book in 1992, 'The Loneliest Grief' describing her journey through miscarriage. Karen began working with her husband, Bernie, supporting couples and families through workshops, counselling, camps and fun days, and eventually completed her MSc in systemic psychotherapy (family therapy) in 2005. She has written a dozen books, including several for children. In 2009 Karen and Bernie moved to Scotland. Unable to find work as a family therapist Karen focussed her energies on writing and training, writing books, leaflets, articles and training materials. Then she discovered The Playfield Centre where Dr Wendy Simpson and Graham.were working with a team to create the website www.handsonscotland.org.uk. As Karen worked with the team to write materials for the site, she learned more about the importance of helping children and adults focus on positive emotional experiences. Blending her interesti in writing, emotional health and creativity, Karen began to collect her ideas for 100 Creative Writing Activities. She especially wanted the activities to be simple, creative and visually appealing, to encourage writers of all abilities to enjoy the activities and to be encourage to explore their positive emotions at the same time.