Testimonials
The Olive Grove Retreat Testimonials
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“The retreat in the olive grove is like being in fable you can feel with your whole body. The land is so present and storied, you cannot help but feel the same. Karen nurtures this horizon line of earth-feel and flourishing imagination so well and provides both structure and wild instinct for the essential work and play of your creative process. The olive tree companions, the secret chapels of lit candles, the sea's swell always within eyesight-all of it supports the inner work and the words wanting out. Plus: gorgeous locally sourced and made food (with its own lore), dancing as necessary, and the camaraderie of others seeking immersion and permissions to be and to make as they are. It's a rare trip. I recommend jumping on it.”
– Mollie Coles Tonn
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"Kaz introduced us to the most extraordinary place, practices, and practical magic in the family grove on Lesvos. I’d never been to Greece before, had always dreamed of going, and it was the ultimate experience of that ancient and olive-tree-filled world. I adopted my own olive tree, lounged and wrote every day in a hammock, and swam to my heart’s content. I went two retreats in one year, one for creative rejuvenation (I needed it!) and one for writing craft. The Olive Grove she let us ‘live in’ is one of the most beautiful, safe and unique places I’ve ever been in my life. My healing and my writing practice both accelerated . . . Thank you, Kaz!"
– Doley Henderson
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"In May, I went to Lesvos in Greece to be with Karen Connelly at The Olive Grove Retreat. I felt invited to unwind, let go and rest into the land, the Olive Grove and to swim in the Aegean Sea. I arrived from Vancouver Island after a major change in my life. In the fall, I’d lost my husband to cancer after five months of illness. Our beloved dog died a month later. On the island, there were six of us participants. We were/are all in major transitions or turning points in our lives. Too, we were also from vastly different backgrounds. Yet the environment, the daily plan to gather under Thalia, the mother olive tree, worked its magic, bringing us all together. Each day, Karen led us in gentle, deceptively simple exercises in self hypnosis and eye-to-brain self-connection work (the eye work was simply extraordinary, like nothing I’ve ever experienced. This is part of her work as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist.) These practices regulated and calmed me. At the same time, they left me feeling alert and energized. They are part of the gift I brought back with me from Greece. These exercises were interwoven with story, much laughter, sometimes tears. Each one of us were invited to choose our own tree for the duration of the retreat, complete with a small table and chair, a mat for the ground, and for some, a hammock! Every day we ate a sumptuous lunch in the Olive Grove prepared with local food, much of it grown on the land around us, and artfully prepared for us by Ieremiah, a wonderful chef and neighbour, or by Rob, Karen’s retreat and life partner. The food! There is no equivalent to be found where I live in Canada (the west coast) for the freshness and taste of that food. Each of ‘our trees’ have a view of rolling hills, fields, the sea below. One day, some of us walked up from the village of Skala Eresos to the Olive Grove, a slow incline on a country road past gardens, crops, animals and neighbours working in their yards. We gathered in the evenings in the village at various restaurants, most right on the sea (like our little hotel—sea views!) We also visited an ancient monastery high up on a hill on a wild windy day. We toured a natural history museum, went to a wild beach, a secret chapel . . . Karen is an excellent guide to the Grove, to Lesvos, to its history and people, and equally seems at home in Greek myths (which often came into our time together**). She is at home with metaphor, to working with what interferes with our creative expression in the moment. I count my time on retreat with Karen as a pivotal part of my healing and creative journey. "
– Somae Osler
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"My patients have been sorted and advised of the date of my return. For the next while, I’m determined to forget I’m a family doctor. This time is for me. A time to piece together my shattered self after the shipwreck of a marriage of thirty-nine years. The first evening after our arrival, we sip Greek wine and Ouzo and tantalize our taste buds with eggplant, calamari, cuttle fish, salads, dolmade, tangy tzatziki, and crunchy fried zucchini flowers. This is the first of many sumptuous meals shared over the next week with the wonderful people who bring with them the stories of their life transitions, creative work, loss, and courage. At ten the next morning, Karen and her partner Robert collect us in a little van. It’s a quick drive, bouncing along cobble stones and rutted roads through the countryside to the Olive Grove. The house is a cool, white bungalow with a glorious porch overlooking wildflowers, herbs, trees, mountains, and the sea. We each choose our muse—a tree beneath which we will settle, move, meditate and write for the next week or two. In the Olive Grove, we work with our creativity--and dis-ease. Exploring. Poking. Prodding. Even playing. Integrating the hurts and harms until they become part of the past, histories that can safely be carried. My anxiety lessens as I feel acceptance. The urge to share everything bouncing around in my hyperactive brain lessens. There’s another physical change. For the first time in my life, my usually cold hands become . . . warm! I think of the times my patients screeched when I examined them. “Cold hands, warm heart,” they’d say when they recovered from my icy touch. My ex joked, “You’re dead, you just don’t know it yet.” Not dead, just damaged. Now my hands are warm. I press my palms against my cheeks and wonder fills me. I have left my husband, finally. But I now have warm hands that hold me. There is another special moment under Thalia, on the indigo blanket. The abundant joy I feel demands release in speech, too much, certainly for a quiet healing circle. Karen takes my hand, to center me. I grow quiet and gaze into the loving eyes of the women. Then I turn away, burying my face into the cotton. A soft touch on my shoulder brings me to tears. When I recover, I share, “I’ve never experienced such unconditional love. Such acceptance of me exactly as I am.” Over the next few days in the Olive Grove, I tend to my physical and emotional health without dissociating or ignoring my pain. I’m supported by new and old friends, family, and community. Each time I feel alone, I place my now-warm palms to my cheeks and remember that I can reach the universe."
– Judy Derckson
The Olive Grove Retreat Video Testimonials
The Courageous Writers’ Academy Testimonials
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“I participated in Karen's first Courageous Writer's Academy a little over two years ago with the goal of learning some practical somatic techniques that would help me to improve my focus in my writing practice and gain greater skill with editing my own writing. I took the toolbox that she helped us to build in and have been pulling resources from it when I need to calm/balance my nervous system and regain focus. The lessons that Karen shared with me about editing my own writing will also be invaluable to successfully progressing through the many drafts that lie between where I stand now and getting my novel published. I am grateful to know Karen and to be a member of the community of courageous writers she nurtures every day through her work. If you are considering joining her academy, I highly recommend you take the plunge. Your future self will thank you.”
– Ariana Salvo
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"‘Pagefright” is a story I started writing more years ago than I care to tell. I would work on it for a while, then come up against a seemingly insurmountable block and put it all away, trying to pretend it didn’t matter. I enrolled in Karen Connelly’s “Courageous Writers Academy” because I had an inkling I was writing something of value close to my heart and I needed help facing my feelings of fear and defeat when looking at a blank page. Through the CWA, I learned a variety of strategies & simple techniques to use when those feelings arise, and to approach my work with an editorial--not a critical, judgemental—eye. And I became connected to an incredible community of writers who were working on their own hard stories, just like me. As well as being an acclaimed author and therapist with extensive experience with creatives to facilitate brain-body-mind awareness and healing, Karen Connelly is an empathic, down-to-earth human being. Her Academy is designed to help you find your voice without losing your mind and empower you to work on and work through your difficult story. I believe we all have a story to tell and if it’s time to start telling yours, I encourage you to give the CWA a try."
– Becky, writer and teacher
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"The Courageous Writers’ Academy with Karen Connelly is a life-changing medley of the practical and the therapeutic. In ‘The Courage Room’—the safe space we create together as a group, and the courage room we each inhabited as individuals--I learned to settle my scattered brain, access my power and direct it onto the page. Karen provided a diverse group of creative artists with comprehensive information geared to improve our writing and editing skills. Harnessing mindfulness and editing tools, my memoir structure manifested itself; my writing improved. I highly recommend this inspiring experience of learning and growth. "
– Dr. Judy Dercksen, family physician and writer
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"The Courage Room, as we learn about in the Academy, is a gift. Honestly, this is Wizard of Oz stuff. In the Courageous Writers’ Academy, Karen Connelly showed us that we’ve had a courage room inside all along: the dazzling red slippers, the magic to find our story, to go home, to get it out and down. To dance."
– Jessica Hiemstra – poet, visual artist, designer.
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"I participated in the Courageous Writers' Academy with Karen Connelly in fall/winter 2021-2022. She is a truly gifted facilitator. I enjoyed the unique program of writing craft and self-editing tools balanced with vital self-care. Karen's shared knowledge and wisdom of neurological approaches taught me new ways to stay grounded while writing my “difficult story." Her guided meditations provided deep reflection. The flow meditation was especially powerful and supported me to centre myself in my body while writing without trying to escape the moment. Returning to the "flow meditation" recording later provided a potent antidote to writer's block and inspired me to write more freely and find peace."
– Kris Elder, writer
“Karen’s practice and the ways in which she supported those involved in The Courageous Writers Academy (Fall 2021 - Winter 2022) led to a remarkable form of community building among the participants. The Academy work was practical, in terms of the elements of writing and editing she presented, and at the same time, intellectually and psychologically transformative.
During the course, Karen supported and encouraged the integration of self, and specifically, the fragmented self we sometimes brought to our writing practise. In terms of my own work I’d been experiencing an almost full stop in my writing. I felt as if I stood in an unknown and unnamed place, separated from the kind of creativity which has always sustained me.
When Karen introduced the concept of somatic work, and specific somatic practices involving talk, sound, and movement, alongside the formal elements of creative writing , she helped me to identify what I came to understand as the gap between body and mind, between story and author. That is, the narrow space in which I was metaphorically and literally standing, I was disoriented and off balance creatively.
Like me, most course participants were working on a form of personal story or memoir. To investigate, understand and grow that work, to progress and move it forward, we had to trust and to be vulnerable with each other.
And that is one of the most terrifying things a writer can do! Opening up and sharing what was traumatic, life altering, or fear causing was risky for all of us.
Karen’s professional approach, compassion, knowledge, understanding, and encouragement supported us in doing the kind of hard work that requires much risk and much courage.
As I write this, on another part of my desk is the manuscript that I just couldn’t finish before the CWA. Today I will submit it to a publisher.
For the courage to do so, I offer my profound thanks to Karen. Without the kind of clarity I gained, without the integration of body and mind, without the gift of somatic practices, the manuscript would still be in a drawer.”
– Anne Sorbie, poet and anthologist
General Testimonials
Testimonials
