Writing Ourselves Awake
An online 8-week small group series.
Support for connecting your body and your creativity.
Join us for Writing Ourselves Awake: Autumn, an 8-week immersive online process to explore inhabiting your body while creatively telling your stories. In a small-group setting, we’ll combine gentle movement and breath exercises with writing prompts and (optional) sharing to explore what happens when we invite our whole selves into the room. In the spirit of fall, we’ll listen for spaciousness, playing with themes of release, letting go, and new openings.
Course includes: live weekly online Embodied Writing classes, weekly audio meditations, online course library of resources for deepening practice, and a care package to support you along the way.
Registration is now closed; sign up for the newsletter below to learn about future courses.
“Body work is soul work, the imagination is the bridge.”
Writing Ourselves Awake is for those who:
Want to step more fully into their lives and bodies
Appreciate spacious witness and collective support
Seek support and tools for tending their nervous systems
Are interested in inhabiting their creativity with more self-trust and ease
Want to commit more fully to their own creativity and embodiment
Writing Ourselves Awake supports you to:
Strengthen your voice & writing in a community of care & gentleness
Develop creativity and embodiment practices
Discover new portals for listening to your inner knowing
Become more familiar with your own rhythms & resources
Connect to your own creativity, intuition, & even joy
Learn body-specific exercises to unwind your own stuck places
Writing Ourselves Awake includes:
Eight Embodied Writing classes: We’ll meet weekly to write, move, and (optionally) share in the context of a small, supportive group
Weekly audio recordings created for the group to take themes deeper on your own time
Resources to support your own explorations, including videos, prompts, & articles
A sweet care package sent by mail to welcome you including a ball for gentle body rolling explorations we’ll do in class
If you’d like individual support, 20% off individual sessions (regularly $100) through December, 2022.
Facilitator
I’m Johanna
a biodynamic craniosacral therapist, a teacher, a writer, an audio producer, and someone who knows autoimmune disease from the inside out. I create spaces where we can listen to what our bodies are actually saying in order to inhabit ourselves more fully. I believe in abundant permission, reverence, and the vitality of creativity. Read more.
Course Themes
Each week we’ll explore themes through audio, movement, and writing. We’ll also leave room for fluidity in our structure - following the group’s evolution and interests.
Permission: Listening inward, reverence, arrival
Week 1: (Invent)ory. Attending to how our bodies are organized right now. Building language for knowing ourselves in the present.
Week 2: Bone. Getting acquainted with structure, electricity and the place where blood is born.
Week 3: Breath. Tuning into the ways we are in movement and rhythm.
Week 4: Sense. Waking up to our ways of knowing.
Week 5: Elements. Bringing the language of natural form into the body.
Week 6: Space & Pace. Exploring how much space we actually need and our organic sense of timing.
Week 7: Release and letting go. With expanding self trust, what habits and stories are ready for composting?
Week 8: Play, Wildness. What happens when we tune in, as Saeed Jones writes, to “the intelligence of honey?”
How it works
Writing Ourselves Awake is an 8-week immersive course to explore embodiment and writing towards awakening our creative selves.
Schedule. Embodied Writing classes meet weekly. Two cohorts are offered, please commit to the time that works best for you.
Tuesday group meets from 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EST on the following dates: October 4th, October 11th, October 18th, October 25th, November 1st, November 8th, November 15th, November 22nd
Thursday group meets 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. EST on the following dates: September 29th, October 6th, October 13th, October 20th, October 27th, November 3rd, November 10th, November 17th
Location. Anywhere! We’ll meet via Zoom.
Cost. With a bow of gratitude to Sage Hayes and Alexis J. Cunningfolk for the inspiration, I am offering a new pay structure:
Option 1: $585—Reflects the true cost of this course. This cost reflects the value of the total number of hours invested to make this class happen. If you have financial security, own property, or have personal savings, this is the appropriate price for you.
Option 2: $485—If you have access to steady income but you have been financially affected by the pandemic, or are struggling to conquer debt or move away from paycheck to paycheck living, you belong here. However, using the sliding scale can limit opportunities for others. So, if you have the option to ask others for financial support, such as family members, partners, or friends, please consider using those personal resources before choosing this option.
Option 3: $385—If the first two options would prevent you from being a part of this session, then this option is for you. If you struggle to maintain access to basic needs, you likely belong here, and deserve a community that honors you exactly where you are. If this option is still prohibitive, please be in touch to explore extended payment plans and other solutions.
Payment plans are available. $200 deposit to register. In addition, scholarships are available particularly for marginalized folx and those in great financial need. Please contact me if you’d like to learn about scholarships or donate to make this option more widely available to others.
Writing Ourselves Awake is limited to a small group of 8-10 participants.
Questions & Answers
How much time will this require?
Our live classes meet for two hours each week, and weekly audio meditations are rarely longer than 5 minutes - how much time you devote outside of this is up to you! Many participants note that they feel inspired to write and move outside of class, but our guiding principles are reverence and permission - you’re encouraged to follow your own rhythms and motivations.
Are meetings recorded?
To ensure privacy of each person’s writing, meetings are not recorded. However, class sequence and materials will be shared each week.
What if I don’t identify as a writer?
Identifying as a writer is no prerequisite! Many (many!) of us wrestle with this fraught designation. If writing is an interesting or occasional outlet, if you like to play with words, or are simply open to trying - that’s perfect :-)
Can I switch between sections?
Because the container of the group is key to feeling comfortable and safe, participants are asked to commit to a single time slot, rather than moving between groups.
I have another question - where can I find the answer?
Please be in touch directly via the contact page.