Teaching traditional writing classes to college students is my day job, but my interest in writing and writing practices does not stop there. I offer the following writing classes to explore with participants a variety of wisdom practices from the world’s spiritual traditions while aligning students with the source of their creative expression.  Please email me if you would like more information or if you would like to schedule a session.

Embodied Writing, taught at Therapeutic Touch. In this workshop taught collaboratively by a yoga instructor and me, we will work to embody your creative impulse. There will be an opening yoga flow that invites you to focus on one emotion emerging as central in your life.  This will be followed by a mini-lecture on embodied writing and a series of activities using movement, writing, and the focus emotion in some creative work.  The session concludes with yoga that integrates the writing and emotional work of the day’s session.

Meditation and Poetry Workshop, taught at Therapeutic Touch, Spring 2011. This class takes you into the space of traditional meditation practices in order to free up your inner resources for poetic inspiration.  We will dedicate each class to a new sacred poet, discussing the poet’s artistic approach, sacred influences, and inspirational practices, leading you as a student into a deeper practice of moving from meditation to written expression.  One aspect of the class is a very preliminary overview of different meditation practices from the East and West, such as those used by Rumi, Hafiz, Basho, Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and some of the contemporary transpersonal poets. The other major part of the class is exploration of the poetic forms used by these writers.  All who are interested, regardless of experience with art, meditation, or creativity, are welcome to attend and are asked to use the principles we discuss regarding writing as a parallel process for exploring your artistic passions.

Writing for Wellness, taught at JC Health Foods and Therapeutic Touch, Winter 2010/2011. One way of looking at the connection between writing and holistic health is exploring how writing, as a flow state, allows us to access higher and subtler forms of energy that feed creativity, enabling us to find blocks in our energy that inhibit our physical and spiritual health and keep us from connecting to Source. By looking at writing as one expression of the creative impulse and by looking at the writing process specifically, we free up resources for knowing and healing ourselves. The class will explore techniques of writing to heal the body and using limited sacred movement as guided by the writing activities. All people, regardless of their experience with art or creativity, are welcome to attend and are asked to use the principles we discuss regarding writing as a parallel process for exploring their own artistic passions, whether those be for the visual arts, music, or some other area.

Spirit of Creativity, taught at Therapeutic Touch, Winter 2011. Topics explored in this series include creation spirituality; metaphor and mind; eros and writing; shamanic dreamtime and creativity; cosmology and creativity; recovering artistic voice and vision; and the use of memory and sacred autobiography in the invention process.

“I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?”
~Anthony Machado