Finding Your Voice: ARFID, Creativity and the Importance of Being Heard

One of the workshops at Wrecsam Ffair explored a deceptively simple question:

What does it mean to have a voice?

The Finding Your Voice / ARFID Awareness Poetry & Creative Workshop, held at Lle Hapus, was delivered as part of TCC’s ARFID and Me campaign.

The session invited participants to explore what it means to feel unheard, and what can happen when people are given the opportunity to express themselves, be listened to and have their voices supported by the wider community.

There was no requirement to be a poet or artist.

There was no ‘right’ way to participate.

Instead, participants could explore their thoughts and experiences through poetry, mood boards and other creative approaches.

A small group, but a big conversation

Macy, who leads the ARFID and Me campaign, reflected afterwards that the relatively small group was actually one of the strengths of the session.

There was enough space for people to become involved without the workshop feeling rushed or overcrowded.

And as the conversation developed, something became clear.

Although the workshop was rooted in ARFID awareness, the discussion quickly became about something much wider.

Being heard.

People talked about the difficulty of explaining what is happening to you, particularly when you don’t necessarily have the words to describe your experience.

They explored how much difference it can make when someone simply gives you the time and space to express yourself in your own way.

And they considered an important question:

Do we really need everyone to communicate in the same way for their experiences to be taken seriously?

The answer, of course, is no.

More than awareness

For Macy, that wider conversation is an important part of why she campaigns around ARFID in the first place.

ARFID awareness isn’t simply about making more people aware of a diagnosis.

It is also about listening to people properly, believing their experiences and resisting the temptation to reduce somebody’s experience to a single label or diagnosis.

As she reflected after the workshop:

“It is not just about awareness of a diagnosis, it is about people being listened to properly, being believed and not having their experiences reduced down to one thing.”

That distinction matters.

A diagnosis may help explain part of somebody’s experience.

It doesn’t tell us everything about the person.

Finding your own way to have a voice

The workshop also connected strongly with TCC’s wider Belonging in Our Community campaign.

Belonging is often talked about in terms of communities coming together, celebrating diversity or creating welcoming spaces.

But there is another important part of belonging:

being able to participate as yourself.

Not everyone communicates in the same way.

Not everyone finds it easy to speak in a group.

Not everyone wants to stand up and talk.

Some people communicate through writing.

Some through art.

Some through music.

Some through movement.

Some need time before they feel comfortable speaking.

And some simply need somebody to listen without immediately trying to solve, correct or dismiss what they are saying.

The Finding Your Voice workshop created space for those different possibilities.

From ARFID to belonging

That is why bringing the ARFID and Me campaign into Wrecsam Ffair was about more than raising awareness of ARFID.

It demonstrated how an issue that can initially appear very specific can open up much wider conversations about voice, participation, understanding and community.

For Macy, the workshop reinforced the idea that even a relatively small gathering can have an impact.

“Even with a small group, those conversations can still have quite a big impact.”

We agree.

Because creating a community where people feel that they belong isn’t necessarily about reaching thousands of people at once.

Sometimes it starts with a handful of people sitting together, being given the time and space to speak — and discovering that somebody is actually listening.

There is no ‘right’ way to have a voice.

And everyone deserves to be heard.

ARFID and Me

The ARFID and Me campaign is a TCC campaign developed around lived experience, awareness and creating better understanding of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).

The campaign continues to create opportunities for people to share experiences and challenge misconceptions around ARFID.

At Wrecsam Ffair, that work became part of a much broader conversation about what it means to belong.

We have more in common than we think.