RESOURCES
Using Expressive Writing to Heal Trauma – Dr James Pennebaker, PhD
James Pennebaker, PhD, is Chair of Psychology at the University of Texas – Austin and author of The Secret Life of Pronouns, Opening Up, and other books. He is an internationally recognised expert on the connection between writing and better health. In this session,...
Affirmations to Heal the Inner Critic
The Inner Critic—everyone is familiar with it. It’s the voice that silences you. It undermines your confidence in facing the blank page, and speaks to your doubts and the part of you that fears writing your stories down, expressing yourself, having your full voice....
Writing Your Memoir Despite Family Guilt and Critical Voices
When we first decide to write, we feel good about it—we have memories and stories that have shaped who we are. We want to explore our live, capture times long gone and preserve them in story form. Leave a legacy about our lives. But other voices compete with our...
Writing with a Beginner’s Mind
In his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki writes about freeing the mind through meditation, creating the possibility of a fresh and truly open mind, especially when approaching new things. He says that we should look at everything with curiosity and...
Tips: Writing to Heal, to Become Whole
Freewrite regularly. Don’t take your pen off the paper and don’t censor. Write your truth for 20 minutes every day. Don’t listen to the critic. Or work with the critic: write down what it says and answer it back. Create a dialogue where your creative voice has the...
Get Started on Your Memoir Journey—The Basic Craft of Writing a Memoir
Most people writing a memoir are learning to write while also excavating the terrain of memories and learning about elements of the past can be painful. If you have started your memoir, or are about to start, you know that writing a book is a journey with several...
Turning Points—How to Find the Structure of Your Memoir
Most of the stories that we want to write are about situations and people that changed us and shifted our lives in a new direction. We call these “turning point moments.” Being clear and making lists of these moments can...