A 1-Day Journey of Writing & Healing
This is a visual guide to your 1-day workshop. We'll move through a deliberate, two-part journey: a morning dedicated to building safety and a "Safe Place" anchor, and an afternoon for deep expressive writing followed by creative "containment" as a poem.
Before any work can begin, we build a "safe container" together. Your safety and autonomy are the most important things in the room. These are our core agreements.
What is shared in this room, stays in this room. What is written is for your eyes alone unless you choose to share it.
This is not for an audience. Do not worry about grammar or spelling. The goal is process, not product.
You do not have to share, speak, or do any exercise that feels wrong. You can pass at any time.
You are your own best expert. If you need to step out, get water, stop writing, or stretch, please do.
The day is split into two distinct, equally important halves. We must build the foundation before we can do the deeper work.
Our entire morning is dedicated to **Safety (Stage 1)**. We will not be diving into deep, hard stories. Instead, we will practice grounding exercises, listen to our bodies, and build a powerful "Safe Place" anchor to use as a resource.
Once grounded, we do the deep **Excavation (Stage 2)** writing. Then, just as importantly, we will **Contain** that writing by transforming it into a "Found Poem." We will not leave until that raw material is safely processed into art.
We will build and practice two powerful grounding tools: one for the present moment, and one for your imagination.
This tool brings you into the "here and now." We use our five senses to anchor ourselves in the present moment, reminding our body that we are safe.
The chart shows the 5 equal parts of this exercise: naming things you can See, Feel, Hear, Smell, and Taste.
This is a portable resource we build in our minds. It's a place we can go to feel 100% safe, built from powerful sensory details.
The chart shows the sensory "web" we build to make this place real: what we See, Hear, Feel, Smell, and Taste there.
This is our core creative process: transforming raw writing into contained art. We don't leave our feelings scattered on the page; we give them a safe and powerful shape.
(20 mins, for your eyes only)
(Your 10-15 highlighted words)
overwhelmed
crushing weight
room was dark
alone
lost in the woods
silence was so loud
one small light
Here is the simple, spacious flow of our 7-hour day, including all breaks.