Carol Ross

I was born in Yorkshire (UK) and have lived in Cumbria (UK) since 1995.

Being an innately curious person who enjoys learning about a lot of different things, I followed my Biochemistry degree from Manchester University (UMIST) with a number of other qualifications and courses including creative writing, counselling and training.

My first career, full time then freelance, was in scientific publishing; then I took my information and IT skills into information science; and then into clinical audit.

My main interest is in therapeutic writing, because I strongly believe that writing is good for you. I have been leading weekly therapeutic writing groups, mainly for mental health inpatients, since April 2010. I recently worked with a London-based team who was preparing an evidence synthesis on the use of therapeutic writing in long-term conditions. This project was commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research in the UK.

I have had some non-fiction and poetry published and I edited and co-authored a not-for-profit book published by Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust called Words for Wellbeing (info on my Wordpress blog and on Amazon).

My other interests, besides therapeutic writing, include: writing short stories and poems, photography, woodland fungi, reading (non-fiction mainly) and listening to audiobooks (fiction).