Embodied Storytelling through Song // with Elizabeth Addison

Looking for a deeply moving experience that builds connection and healing and celebrates your resilience?

This incredibly unique and innovative workshop builds on our other storytelling programs with the addition of music, guiding participants to discover a story within themselves and turn it into a song.

Techniques combine narrative and drama therapy with a fully embodied songwriting process that requires no instruments and no prior skill, leaving participants with a deeply moving experience that builds connection and healing and celebrates their resilience.

Week By Week

Week 1

• Identifying home - songs that give you a sense of comfort
• Group ground work and community building through play
• Finding the story for your song (prompts and verbal sharing)
• Writing time

Week 2

• Music Therapy exercise 
• Fleshing out your story
• What is the most important thing of your story
• Elements of a song
• Writing time

Week 3

• Song structure
• Coaching the heartbeat and melody
• Finding your hook
• Writing time

Week 4

• Time to share (you do not need to have a finished song!) 
• Process and reflect

“I didn’t know anything about song writing before taking Elizabeth’s innovative workshop. My experience was nothing short of amazing and by the time I left I felt I could actually use these new tools. I also witnessed others in the group have powerful experiences with her methods. I highly recommend her class whether or not you have ever written a song before.” -Kerrie Taylor, Recovery Coach and Facilitator

Who Should Take This Class

Anyone who has a story to sing. There is no "right" or "wrong" in this workshop. You do not need to be a songwriter or a singer or play an instrument.  You just have to have the willingness to play, try something new and be open to letting this work and this process work its way through you.  The process is the product.

We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

“Having participated in one of Elizabeth’s embodied storytelling through song workshops before, I was amazed by the ease with which she encouraged us all to forgo expectations of perfection and instead lean into our vulnerability—the heart of storytelling. She’s able to hold space for this work in a way that’s unavailable in traditional academic settings.By the end of the workshop, I realized that the work that she does is not just about supporting others in becoming great storytellers, but exploring the beauty and complexity of the human experience in a way that enhances our ability to form true connection with others.“ -Indie Recording Artist, Zakiyyah Sutton

Format

Course materials will be delivered through weekly Zoom sessions and a Google Classroom. Because the real creative work/play of the course will happen mostly in breakout rooms (which Zoom doesn't record) in the live Zoom sessions, the Zoom meetings are not going to be recorded. 

About the Facilitator

Elizabeth Addison is an award winning multi-hyphenate whose work exists at the intersection of recovery and the performing arts. She has written three musicals inspired by her recovery journey, one of which, “Chasing Grace,” is set to have an Off-Broadway run in 2025/26. Elizabeth is a Creative Recovery Coach, Story Coach and Trauma Informed Facilitator with The Meghann Perry Group where she facilitates Recovery Storytelling, Embodied Storytelling and Embodied Songwriting workshops.  She is also a consultant for The Opioid Response Network (ORN) and The Grayken Center at Boston Medical Center. Her website.