Write & Release Writing Group

I don’t think anyone can really teach writing. What I know I can do is create a safe place for writers to write.  — Nancy Aronie

Embrace change, discover healing: Healing Arts for life transitions.

Survivor Village: A Virtual Writing Community

Each group is facilitated for a 7-week therapeutic, online writing group that culminates in joining an ongoing writing community with alumni. More information coming soon.

Are you going through a challenging life transition? Join us in our supportive community where we use expressive arts therapy through writing. Together, we co-create a safe space for exploring and processing emotions. This offering is a space designed for personal growth and introspection. Don't face your journey alone. Join us, share your story, and discover the power of healing through artistic expression.

Weekly classes include somatic embodiment practices, discussion, writing prompts, guided-meditation, and hearing and sharing stories of survivorship with other creative, resilient, and sensitive beings. This is for anyone seeking a trauma-informed space to share writing and receive feedback from the group and us (the group facilitators), as desired.

Complete the Interest form for details and enrollment info.

Sliding scale to be accessible to all.

Reach out with any/all questions! Email me JocelynEve28@gmai.com if you have any questions regarding accessibility and more.

Testimonials

FAQ

Logistics: February 2024-March 2024 Weekly Live Calls: TBA

• Format: Online and self-paced with "drip content" released each week; cohorts of people will through the experience together, convening in optional study-into-action groups; videos will be supplemented by readings and resources

• We will be recording lives on Zoom to assist with accessibility for those unable to access the weekly calls, so please keep your camera off/change your name display if you have any concerns related to being recorded.

Who is this for?

• Victims/Survivors of trauma and adversity, who are interested in exploring the link between personal and societal transformation. It is a time for new paradigms in mental health: one that does not deny self-determination and healing, that accounts for the complexity of personal, social, and collective traumas, that expands what we've called "normal" to embrace the full range of human experience. It's time we look beyond medicalized and disease-centered thinking to offer regenerative, holistic, and transformative practices.

“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects. Longer than knowing even wonders.”

Faulkner speaks to how memory and knowledge are two separate things. Memory is faithful in a way that knowledge isn’t, for memory continues to believe and wonder. In differentiating memory from knowledge, Faulkner is speaking to all of us who have experienced trauma and hardship. Memory lives in our bodies. A felt sense rather than a clear snapshot.

We’ll consider questions and experiences of survivorship through the themes of:

• Resistance, including what gets in the way of our creative life.

• Prioritizing Comfort, Safety, Pleasure

• Establishing Rituals and A Writing Practice

• Courage & Having New Experiences

• Radical Acceptance

• Voices & Choices

• Freedom

Details: Thursday Weekly Live Session 7:30-9:00 PM

Cost: $140 - $280 sliding scale for all seven sessions. If $280 presents a financial hardship, I've linked a scale to help you identify a reduced rate.

Benefits:

• Regain a sense of connection to others

• Gain confidence in taking risks, tapping into creativity and joy

• Practice self-care, learning the value of setting aside for you regularly

• Make meaning of your experience through writing  

• Cultivate more self-compassion and clarity

• Gain support and community

Background: Since before I can remember I have loved using writing as a vehicle for change and self-discovery. Since 2016, I have offered free writing groups for survivors at the Cambridge Women Center through the Survivor Theatre Project’s monthly expressive arts workshops for survivors of sexual abuse and assault wanting to find their voice and use it. My passion is leading writers’ circles for anyone wanting to find their voice and use it. My healing path is filled with writing experiences both alone and with others. Through writing, we uncover our creativity and joy within a circle of writers, honoring and finding meaning in our own stories. We stop the inner critic in their tracks.  Buried under our traumas there runs a wellspring of creativity and joy waiting to be tapped into within a circle of survivors writing together. There are threads of common purpose for writing within a supportive group. I know it’s possible because I have seen it happen in all of the circles I’ve been privileged to be a part of.  

In this process, we examine how the writing process can serve as a healing tool for adversity and trauma. We may share poems and meditation practices that demonstrate the transformative power of healing in community. Primarily, group members will work on their own writing interests in a supportive environment.

This group will be hosted virtually using Zoom. You will be able to participate in group from wherever you’re most comfortable. You’ll receive an email with a link to join the group–no need to download any apps in advance! If you have questions about remote participation, please reach out to me for more information. 

We follow a set of group guidelines that holds our space safely together. For writing circle guidelines, click here. 

For those new to this process who are interested - let’s set up a time to talk to see if this is the right fit for you. Contact me to schedule a phone appointment.

Each limited to six (6) members, waiting list will be started once a circle is full.

Cost: $280 for 7 live calls. Weekly Circles are hosted online.

Sliding scale and scholarships are available. 

Write & Release is offered on a sliding scale in order to allow for financial accessibility. Folks with racial and class privilege are invited to pay on the higher end of the scale to subsidize the cost for folks with marginalized racial or class backgrounds.

*If scheduling is a concern, contact me as these times are subject to change.

Essential Worker Wellbeing Writing Circles  

Benefits:

• Is stress impacting the quality of your life? Are you experiencing overwhelm and burnout at work and at home?

• Do you prioritize everyone’s needs before your own?

• Gain support and community in healing from the intensity of working on the frontlines

• Regain a sense of hopefulness and inner-calm

• Discover a newfound sense of creativity and joy

• Practice self-care, learning the value of setting aside for you regularly

• Opportunity to make meaning of your experience through writing  

• Cultivate self-compassion and clarity

My passion is leading writers’ circles for anyone wanting to find their voice and use it. My healing path is filled with writing experiences both alone and with others. Through writing, we uncover our creativity and joy within a circle of writers all honoring their and finding meaning in our own stories. We stop the inner critic in their tracks.  Buried under our traumas and stories is a wellspring of creativity and joy waiting to be tapped into within a circle of providers & educators writing together. There are threads of common purpose for writing within a supportive group. In this process, we examine how the writing process can serve as a healing tool for adversity and trauma. We may share poems, essays, articles and book excerpts that demonstrate the transformative power of personal narrative. Primarily, group members will work on their own narratives in a supportive workshop environment.

Circles will be hosted in-person as well as virtual circles offered using Zoom. You will be able to participate in class from wherever you’re most comfortable. You’ll receive an email from me on the day your circle is scheduled with a link to join the circle–no need to download any apps in advance! If you have questions about remote participation, please reach out to me for more information. Our writing circles are a place where people who don’t usually talk about the heart of the work are willing to share their vulnerability, to question themselves. This provides an opportunity for reflection, connection and dialogue that doesn’t happen anywhere else in most clinical & education work settings.

The stresses of today’s healthcare & education system threaten the delivery of compassionate care. Financial pressures and administrative demands mean less time with patients and a focus on diagnosis, and treatment rather than the impact an illness can have on the patient and family. For educators, it may be a hyper focus on test scores and behavior management rather than positive and adverse childhood experiences and a focus on the well-being of a child. As a result, many of us are anxious, frustrated and under pressure with no structured outlet for expressing our feelings and little preparation for the difficult communication issues that are an inevitable part of patient care. Our essential workers are leaving the workforce without structural support and ban-with to persevere through burnout this past year especially.

Cost: $150.00 for five sessions, weekly. Circles are hosted in-person as well as online.

Sliding scale ($65, $85, $105, $125, $145) and scholarships are available. 

This Writing Circle is offered on a sliding scale in order to allow for financial accessibility. Folks with racial and class privilege are invited to pay on the higher end of the scale to subsidize the cost for folks with marginalized racial or class backgrounds.

This group will be hosted in-person as well as another group meeting virtually using Zoom. You will be able to participate in class from wherever you’re most comfortable. You’ll receive an email from me on the day your circle is scheduled with a link to join the circle–no need to download any apps in advance! If you have questions about remote participation, please reach out to me for more information.