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This special workshop demonstrates using writing for inner exploration. Activities include brief spontaneous writing activities with discussion of how writing in response to images opens awareness of the stirrings of the unconscious.
Each numbered course features entirely different content. They need not be taken sequentially.
This course demonstrates how expressive writing can be useful for personal exploration. Engaging the imagination helps reveal unclaimed dimensions of emotional experience. Writing activities show how spontaneous expression can help us gain compassionate perspectives towards ourselves and others.
Focus is on methods of encouraging participants to write freely. We will discuss how writing encourages healing through increasing confidence and self-acceptance. The ongoing practice of reflective writing can be a major aid in finding personal fulfillment.
The material is presented at an introductory level, requiring no background in writing or psychology.
Recognize how the unconscious can be evident in reflective writing.
Select helpful methods of acknowledging individual perspectives.
Discern how the inner life can be enriched through expressive writing.
Demonstrates techniques useful in stimulating the imagination.
Identify strategies for introducing writing activities into psychotherapy.
Discuss effective facilitation methods for group writing.
The following CE credits are available:
Psychology, MFT, LCSW, NBCC, Nursing : 6 CE hours
Most teachers must get credits approved by their school administration. Center courses meet the requirements in most states. Contact us if you need more information about receiving credit in your state.
Select a date from the list of seminar dates
Register online or call the Center
These courses are offered online via Zoom meeting.
Anne Bach, M.S., MFT 38891 is a specialist in uses of writing in psychotherapy. She gives presentations on creativity as inner work at major conferences, and lectures widely on psychological dimensions of expressive writing. She also appears in memoir drama performances for various theater groups, including the Marsh Stage in Berkeley. Her clinical background includes poetry therapy with seriously mentally ill patients.
This day includes support from Jonathan Young, PhD, psychologist.
Zoom link opens at 9:30 a.m. - Workshop 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Bolton, Gillie, Victoria Field, Kate Thompson (Eds) (2006) Writing Works: A Resource Handbook for Therapeutic Writing Workshops and Activities (Writing for Therapy or Personal Development). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley
Cameron, Julia (1999) The Right to Write. Los Angeles: TarcherPerigree
Chavis, Geri (2011) Poetry and Story Therapy: The Healing Power of Creative Expression. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley
Chavis, Geri Giebel (2003) The Healing Fountain: Poetry Therapy for Life's Journey. Saint Cloud, MN: North Star Press of Saint Cloud
DeSalvo, Louise (1999) Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives. New York: HarperSanFrancisco
Dillard, Anne (1989) The Writing Life, New York: HarperPerennial
Fox, John (1995) Finding What You Didn’t Lose, New York: Tarcher/Putnam
Goldberg, Natalie (2016) The Great Spring: Writing, Zen, and this Zigzag Life. Boston: Shambhala
Goldberg, Natalie (2016) Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambhala
Goldberg, Natalie (2014) Living Color: Painting, Writing, and the Bones of Seeing. STC Craft / Falick
Goldberg, Natalie (2013) The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. Atria
Goldberg, Natalie (2011) Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft. Open Road
Goldberg, Natalie (1999) Freeing the Writer Within. Audible audiobook
Goldberg, Natalie (1990) Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life, New York: Bantam
Hirshfield, Jane (1998) Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. New York: HarperPerennial
Hynes, Arleen (1994) Biblio-Poetry Therapy: The Interactive Process: A Handbook. Saint Cloud, MN: North Star Press of Saint Cloud
Keen, Sam and Valley-Fox, Anne (1973) Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life through Writing and Storytelling. New York: Tarcher/Putnam
Lamott, Anne (2004) Word by Word, (audiobook). Austin, TX: Writer’s AudioShop ~ also available on audible
Lamott, Anne (1994) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, New York: Doubleday
Mazza, Nicholas (2003) Poetry Therapy ~ Theory and Practice New York: Routledge
Mazza, Nicholas (1999) Poetry Therapy: Interface of the Arts and Psychology. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press
Metzger, Deena (1992) Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds. New York: HarperSanFrancisco
Pennebaker, James W., Joshua M. Smyth (2016) Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain (3rd Ed.) New York: The Guilford Press
Pennebaker, James W., John Evans (2014) Expressive Writing: Words that Heal. Enumclaw, WA: Idyll Arbor
Rilke, Rainer Maria (1984) Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Random House
Woodman, Marion (1990) Chaos or Creativity? (audiotape). Pacific Grove, CA: Oral Traditions Archives
Woodman, Marion (1993) Emily Dickinson and the Demon Lover<, (audiotape). Boulder, CO: Sounds True