journaling writing courses

Course Descriptions
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Instructor Bio
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All of the courses designed here have an important component that is missing in 1-way instruction: You not only have instructional material and exercises but also your own personal writing coach for the duration of the course.

E-courses are conducted using email. I send lessons one at a time as you are ready, respond to your progress and questions, and am available for consultation, including designing exercises just for you. This is not an automated system but a human one with a human relationship.

All courses include fundamental guidelines for journaling and assume no previous journaling experience. The exception is the course related to spiritual life, which is for students who are familiar with journaling techniques and already have a relationship with the journal. Specific exercises are geared toward the different subject areas described below. Lessons include several exercises and/or techniques and are more concentrated than in courses where a lesson essentially consists of one exercise.

Note: you are not asked to share your journal entries with me but rather invited to dialogue with me about what is working and what is not and where you would like help.

Course Descriptions

Exploring Your Life Through Journal Writing
(10 lessons, $120) (suggested pace 5-8 months)

This course is designed for adults who want to use writing to develop a more intimate relationship with themselves. It includes the techniques of free writing, timed writing, dialogues, repeating questions, sentences stems, lists, steppingstones, free association, inquiry, working with dreams, and unsent letters. It also includes a number of structured exercises I have created including: The Curriculum of Your Life, Top 10 Challenges, The 10 Commandments (with 3 variations), Supports and Saboteurs, and The 2 x 4. There’s a chance to tell your story, give voice to your fears and pain, work with blocks, examine beliefs, and work with relationship issues. Designed for those who want to go deep.

Journaling Made Simple
(5 sessions, $55) (suggested pace 2-3 months)

This course covers journaling fundamentals plus a number of techniques, but without going into the depth of life exploration that many of the other courses go into. Enough to support your journal-writing for many years.

Journaling for Trauma Survivors
(8 sessions, $90) (suggested pace 4-6 months)

Those who have experienced major life trauma (including childhood abuse) often have special needs when it comes to personal writing. There can be a lot to process, yet the disruption to the nervous system that accompanies trauma leaves the survivor vulnerable to being overwhelmed. This course includes the fundamentals of journaling and a number of journaling techniques, along with some guidelines for creating safety. Emphasis is given to self-support and developing a nurturing voice toward yourself. Since one response to trauma is to numb oneself, identifying feelings is a valuable way to start coming out of deep freeze. For those familiar with journaling and quite involved in their process, also consider the offering (below) called Your Personal Consultant.

I am the author of Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life (fall 2007).

Your Personal Consultant
(6 sessions, $120) (suggested pace 2-4 months)

Rather than a course with pre-determined content, this is a set of personal consultations in which you can work on personal issues and increase your journaling skills. I will put together pieces of content from my various courses and send them to you as they seem most appropriate and will design exercises to help you explore whatever issues you would like and to expand your current use of the journal. We’ll go session by session in a process more like therapy or coaching, although we’ll do it through email. Because this process is much more time-intensive for me, it costs a little more, although compared to consulting, coaching, or therapy fees, it is quite a bargain.

The Journal as Companion on the Journey Through Grief
(10 lessons, $120) (suggested pace 6-9 months)

This course is one part journaling course and one part education about grief. The exercises and structure have been designed to support the bereaved over a period of months with the following goals:

• easing the pain of grief by providing a safe context for doing grief work

• learning various journaling techniques that can be used to optimize the value of a personal writing practice

• offering structures that help a person track their own internal process, making it easier to see progress and to know when more help is needed

Educational content includes elements of self-care, identifying needs and resources, working with memories, unfinished business, looking at the life that is left, and permission to move on.

I am a former Associate Director of Bereavement for a hospice in Colorado.

Supporting Spiritual Life Through the Journal
(4 sessions, $ 35) (suggested pace 2-3 months)

The focus of this class is reflecting on your spiritual path, writing for guidance, and learning more about the role spirituality plays in your life. This course is for students familiar with journaling techniques who already have a relationship with the journal. More info.

A long-time spiritual seeker and practitioner, I am author of The Tao of Contemplation: Re-sourcing the Inner Life (Weiser, 2000), The Tarot of Transformation (with Willow Arlenea, RedWheel/Weiser, 2002), and Freefall to the Beloved: Mystical Poetry for God’s Lovers (Golden Reed, 1996) as well as dozens of reflective essays on spiritual life.

Integrating Your Life (for those looking at end-of-life issues)
(8 sessions, $90) (suggested pace 3-6 months)

This course is designed specifically for people who perceive themselves to be entering a completion phase of life, most likely due to illnesses or aging. The psychologist Erik Erikson said the final task of life is to get a perspective on our life and its meaning. This course uses journaling as a tool for working with these issues, because journaling excels at supporting reflection, and it is through reflection that we harvest the meaning of our lives. Exercises are designed to help journalers see the patterns in their lives, look at what they are grateful for, their accomplishments, challenges, lessons learned, roads not taken, unfinished business, and regrets. Students also create a multi-media tribute, write their own eulogy, create a soul portrait, review their life from a compassionate, all-knowing perspective, and reflect upon death. The goal is to feel more peace with end-of-life issues. More info.

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