Enroll in these life-changing classes that will spark your creative spirit.
Enroll in as many as you like by Feb. 15 and save 15% on all classes.
- "Writing as a Way of Healing: Ourselves and Others" with Sharon Bray, January 9 – March 4 | Read More
- "Claiming Your Erotic Story" with Jen Cross, February 6 – March 18 | Read More
- “Making the Leap into the Work You Love” with Scott Youmans, March 26 – May 6 | Read More
- “Who Just Wrote That? And Why?: Integrally Informed Writing to Know the Self“ with Reggie Marra, May 7 – June 17 | Read More
- "Crafting the Erotic for Publication" with Jen Cross, June 18 – July 22 | Read More
- “Trying on the Shadows: Writing from the Hidden Parts of Ourselves”with Scott Youmans, July 23 – September 2 | Read More
- “Writing from the Root and Through the Body” with Marianela Medrano-Marra, September 3 – October 14 | Read More
- "Your Calling, Your Livelihood, Your Life" with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, November 5 – December 16 | Read More
Writing as a Way of Healing: Ourselves and Others
Week of Jan. 9 – Feb. 4, 2012. | Taught by Sharon Bray | $280 for non-members; $252 members
Through online interaction, readings, and a variety of writing exercises, we'll explore how writing can be healing, whether you are writing from your own life difficulties or helping others reclaim voices silenced by pain, trauma, circumstance or illness.
Best known for her innovative work in expressive or therapeutic writing for cancer patients and others whose voices have been silenced by pain, loss or trauma, Sharon has been leading writing groups for cancer patients and survivors for over a decade. Her two most recent books, When Words Heal: Writing Through Cancer and A Healing Journey: Writing Together through Breast Cancer document the healing power of writing. In 2007, together with Pat Fobair, LCSW, she co-edited an anthology of cancer patients' writing, Learning to Live Again, published by the Stanford School of Medicine. Her website is Her website is www.sharonbray.net. She holds a doctorate in Applied Psychology from the University of Toronto.
Intensive (new lessons posted every five days) Jan. 30 – Feb. 29, 2012. | Taught by Jen Cross | $210 non-member; $189 members. Register by Jan. 31 and save 15% ($178 non-member; $161 member)
We each need safe space in which to be our whole erotic selves–discover the liberatory uses of erotic writing as you try your hand at some explicit erotic writing, and, in so doing, get more comfortable exploring and talking about sexual desires, explore the varied and complex aspects of sexuality and desire, and celebrate the fullness of our erotic expression!
Jen Cross is a freelance writer and educator whose writing has been published in more than thirty anthologies and periodicals, including Visible: A femmethology (vol 1), Nobody Passes, Best Sex Writing 2008, Best Women's Erotica 2007, Best Fetish Erotica, More Five Minute Erotica, and make/shift: feminisms in motion. She tours nationwide with the Body Heat: queer femme porn tour. Jen's used erotic writing as a transformative, healing practice personally, and has led erotic writing workshops since 2002. She holds an MA in Transformative Language Arts and is a certified facilitator of the Amherst Writers Workshop Method. More information at writingourselveswhole.org!
Making the Leap into Work You Love
March 26 – May 6, 2012. | Taught by Scott Youmans | $210 non-member; $189 members. Register by Jan. 31 and save 15% ($178 non-member; $161 member)
Your life is a work of art
A craft to be most carefully mastered
For patience has replaced time
And you are your own destination.
– Rick Jarow, author of Creating the Work You Love
Have you been incubating a new vision of your work in the world? Transitioning from the safety of the known into the possibility of passionate work can give pause to even the most experienced entrepreneur, so come and gather in community with other transformative artists who are on similarly unfolding paths. Making the Leap into Work You Love is a five-week retreat where we will share stories of inspiration from our lives, clarify where we are now and explore possibilities about where we want to go. Each week will have inspirational and informative readings, writing prompts and other exercises for listening to your heart. Participants will be asked to make commitments toward pursuing their own right livelihood and they will have the opportunity to join an online community of past course participants.
Scott Youmans, MA in Transformative Language Arts, is an experienced facilitator who creates spaces for others to take creative risks and embark on journeys of self-discovery. He has offered programs at the Power of Words Conference for many years and has recently begun offering workshops at the Swarthmore Healing Center, in Pennsylvania. His essay "God Behind Bars: Facilitating a Men’s Spiritual Writing Group at a State Hospital" is published in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader. You can learn more about Scott at his website, This Energetic Man.
Who Just Wrote That? And Why? Integrally Informed Writing to Know the Self
May 7 – June 17, 2012. | Taught by Reggie Marra | $210 non-member; $189 members. Register by Jan. 31 and save 15% ($178 non-member; $161 member)
“There is only self interest. What changes is the definition of the self.” - Richard Barrett
You believe that writing is a valuable tool for understanding yourself and the world. Who is it that believes this – who exactly is the self this believer is attempting to understand through written language? With this question and Richard Barrett’s words as our points of departure, we will work to identify and befriend the lens(es) through which we view ourselves and the world, and we’ll take away, and deepen our relationships with, writing tools and processes that we can use in perpetuity, (even longer if you wish), as those lenses, and our respective worldviews, evolve. Our prospective avenues for exploration include the interrelations among intention, behavior, culture and environment (aka quadrants); sub-personalities; shadow; emotions; intentional change (and what prevents it); skillful means; life as and through metaphor; and anything we agree serves us as we move forward during our six weeks together—at our chosen respective levels of depth and (dis)comfort .
Reggie Marra is the author of two nonfiction books and two volumes of poetry. He is an Integral Coach,™ and because he believes transformative language is essential in classrooms and boardrooms (kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms too), he works as both a teaching artist and a founding partner with ParadoxEdge, an executive coaching and consulting firm. From 2005 through 2008 Reggie presented workshops on integral theory and application, shadow, and voice dialogue at the annual Power of Words Conference, sponsored by the TLA program at Goddard College. He has presented his poetry and integrally-informed work at conferences for the National Association for Poetry Therapy, the National Speakers Association, the Spirituality Institute at Iona College, Vistage executive meetings, and school districts throughout the northeastern United States. See more at reggiemarra.com.
July 23 – Sept. 2, 2012. | Taught by Jen Cr0ss | $210 non-member; $189 members. Register by Jan. 31 and save 15% ($178 non-member; $161 member)
Take your erotic story to the next level–through writing exercises, reading discussions and focused editorial feedback, we will move your idea or manuscript toward a publishable form, tackling such perennial issues as common cliches, fresh language, realistic scene setting and more!
Jen Cross is a freelance writer and educator whose writing has been published in more than thirty anthologies and periodicals, including Visible: A femmethology (vol 1), Nobody Passes, Best Sex Writing 2008, Best Women's Erotica 2007, Best Fetish Erotica, More Five Minute Erotica, and make/shift: feminisms in motion. She tours nationwide with the Body Heat: queer femme porn tour. Jen's used erotic writing as a transformative, healing practice personally, and has led erotic writing workshops since 2002. She holds an MA in Transformative Language Arts and is a certified facilitator of the Amherst Writers Workshop Method. More information at writingourselveswhole.org!
Trying on the Shadows: Writing from the Hidden Parts of Ourselves
July 23 – Aug 27th | Taught by Scott Youmans | $210 non-member; $189 members. Register by Jan. 31 and save 15% ($178 non-member; $161 member)
“It is in learning to identify the great archetypal motifs within ourselves, learning to honor each one as a legitimate human trait, learning to live out the energy of each in a constructive way, that we make inner work a great odyssey of the spirit.” – Robert A. Johnson, author of He, She, We and Inner Work.
Is your trickster getting the best of you? Has your lover stopped sending flowers? Does your warrior pick the wrong fights? Has your sovereign led you astray? Join Scott for an exploration of four prominent archetypal energies that exist within each of us. Try on healthy and less-healthy aspects of each through the use of inspiring words, visualization and writing. By expressing them in a non-judgmental space, by shining a light upon them, it is hoped that we may begin to value their contribution to our wholeness and become more conscious of their influence on our lives.
Scott Youmans, MA in Transformative Language Arts, is an experienced facilitator who creates spaces for others to take creative risks and embark on journeys of self-discovery. He has offered programs at the Power of Words Conference for many years and has recently begun offering workshops at the Swarthmore Healing Center, in Pennsylvania. His essay "God Behind Bars: Facilitating a Men’s Spiritual Writing Group at a State Hospital" is published in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader. You can learn more about Scott at his website, This Energetic Man.
Writing from the Root and the Body
Sept. 3 – Oct. 14, 2012. | Taught by Marianela Medrano-Marra | $210 non-member; $189 members. Register by Jan. 31 and save 15% ($178 non-member; $161 member)
"Writing from the Root and Through the Body" is a course designed to help you explore the relationship between your culture of origin, the language of the body and the manifestation of a true sense of self. Through guided writing and the readings of specific poems you will be offered a multiplicity of lenses to expand the perception of culture beyond a racial or ethnic identity, transcending and including it. At the end, you will walk away with a body of work that presents you as more than a name, a language, a body and set of cultural practices. In other words, writing that shows the vastness of being You.
Marianela Medrano-Marra is a Dominican writer, poet, psychotherapist and certified poetry therapist living in Connecticut since 1990. Her individual publications include: Oficio de Vivir (Buho,1986), Los Alegres Ojos de la Tristeza (Buho,1987), Regando Esencias/ The Scent of Waiting (Alcance,1998), Curada de Espantos (Torremozas, 2002) and Diosas de la Yuca (Terramozas 2011). Medrano-Marra’s work also appears in literary magazines and academic journals such as Brooklyn Review, Punto 7 Review, Sisters of Caliban, Callaloo, Tertuliando/Hanging Out, Letras Femeninas, Kacike, Trivia Voices of Feminism, Journal of Poetry Therapy, Sandplay Therapy Journal, The Afro-Latin@ Reader, and Letralia among others.
Your Calling, Your Livelihood, Your Life
"The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into the pulse" – Annie Dillard
Nov. 5 – Dec. 16 2012. | Taught by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg | $210 non-member; $189 members. Register by Jan. 31 and save 15% ($178 non-member; $161 member)
What work calls to you as your own as this point in your life? How can you develop a livelihood — or transform your current livelihood — with your deepest vision, values and voice? In this class, you'll explore long-term conversations with your callings (in our art, work and life), approaches for exploring and revising myths and messages about who you should be, cultivating spaciousness for your deepest work, hunting and gathering sources and supports, making the work you love come true, and staying engaged with your life's work as your life shifts and unfolds. This class includes writing and other arts to bring more of your dreams to the surface as well as soulful planning tools. By the end of the class, you will have a body of writing, plans and maps, and other arts and tools to guide your life from the heart of your callings.
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the Poet Laureate of Kansas, founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College, and author of over a dozen books (including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, memoir and anthologies). Her latest books are The Divorce Girl (a novel, Ice Cube Press), and Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and Polish Resistance Figher Beat the Odds and Found Each Other (non-fiction based on oral histories, Potomac Press). She is currently facilitating a Kansas-wide renga (conversational poem) featuring 150 writers and just facilitated a state poet laureate renga. She offers community writing workshops widely, and with singer Kelley Hunt, Brave Voice writing and singing retreat and performances. www.CarynMirriamGoldberg.com