The Courageous Writers’
Online Retreat
August 7th to 11th, 2025
Join the Waitlist Below
The most comprehensive program for transforming your difficult story into a source of power. Seriously.
In this 5 day retreat, you’ll learn how to work skilfully with language while being present and kind to your body. You’ll learn how to work through writing problems of all sorts using both spiritual wisdom and neuroscientific practices.
For an optional small amount, you may also join the second week, for a daily group WRITE and check-in.
KEY: you’ll receive a toolbox of critical tips on how to EDIT your own work in a professional way.
AND you’ll get connected to other writers doing the same thing.
Are you ready for a delightful change?
Here you go: it’s in your hands. Our hands. Our bodies. Our beautiful brains.
Whether you are a professional writer, an enthusiastic journaller, or someone wrestling in silence with a difficult story . . . finding and giving ourselves permission to write takes courage.
Curious about deepening your physical and spiritual courage?
Keen to develop an embodied writing practice that fits your life?
How about cultivating self-care with love & humour from a proven expert?
Did you say YES to all of the above?
Then you’re in the right place!
Fear and Hiding. feeling Stuck. so much . . . procrastination!! PTSD triggers. Crying jags. Nausea. muscle tightness. Self-doubt. Distracted mind.
Every writer and other creative person I’ve ever worked with has one of these lists (including me). Even when we’re relatively healthy and high-functioning, we bring our deepest internal struggles to creative life--then turn them into physical and emotional stuff.
By the end of our course, you will have:
new (stellar!) writing craft and editing skills—editing is a key activity not just for better ‘copy’ but for a more integrated brain!
self-care tools based on somatic trauma therapy and neuroscience
new creative habits and spiritual rituals for a better writing life and life-life
a better understanding of how your brain affects your body
more courage, empathy and love for yourself and others
If you want to write purely for self-expression and for healing, without any critique or fear of judgment, you belong here. In the last few years, I—a successful, prize-winning author of a dozen books—have returned to writing down what I love, fear, and rage about because ample research shows that expressive writing helps us to process and de-somatize (remove from the body) our fear, pain and anxiety.
Even if you’re working on a formal manuscript for publication, you’re invited to explore expressive writing here: it’s one of the best things we can do for our overall health, mental, physical, spiritual. Expressive writing about our difficult story helps us in surprising ways . . .
In the CWA, humour, pleasure and joy are also invited into the room with us. I know, it sounds unlikely. But this is not your typical Academic Experience.
Come on in. Maybe you’re already a brilliant writer. Maybe you are afraid of the blank page. Still, you feel called, again and again, to write the story down. (Or, as the case may be, to write that shit down!)
For those wrestling with
The Difficult Story.
We’ve each got a story about our story . . .
It’s different for everyone but one thing is often the same: it can be really hard. Are you wrestling with the angel or the demon of writing?
Let’s find out! That wrestling is your call to join me, to join us. I’ve spent my life writing difficult stories. For almost as long, I’ve been inviting others to do the same. That’s partly why I became a therapist: to explore my own and other people’s artistic, mental, and physical struggles with fresh eyes and powerful new tools, all of them based on sound neuroscientific and psychological research.
Let’s grow in this garden together.
Fellow Etymology Nerds: the first “Academy” began in 387 B.C. in a beautiful GARDEN near Athens. The original Academy was a sanctuary of song and wisdom—very different from today’s academy. I work with a lot of people whose creativity has been impaired, wounded, denied or worn down by the university experience.
I taught writing and theory in a Graduate MFA program for a decade. I left because it often seemed to be a harmful, unhealthy experience for both my students and myself. There are other time-honoured ways to become a writer.
How the CWA Works
In Week One (Thursday, August 7 to Monday August 11) for 3 hours/day I teach courageous self-care (including therapeutic tips for integration and nervous system regulation), answer your writing and editing questions (based on the online course material) and coach you through writing rough spots caused by writing confusions, traumatic sequelae, and anxiety. Craft and editing lessons are available online, organized as text-and-audio or video lessons. We will review some of this material in person, depending on group needs and dynamics.
In Optional Week Two, we write together daily for 3-4 hours, integrating what we’ve learned in Week One. We also have three group meetings (at the beginning, in the middle, at the end).
The curriculum is drawn from my experience as a writer, my decade of teaching in the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA program, my two decades at the Humber School For Writers and my work as a psychotherapist who specializes in trauma, creativity and giftedness.
While this is NOT a literary workshop (where you critique fellow participants’ writing), I DO facilitate and connections between group members in a variety of ways. Traditional group workshopping can be great, though it’s often competitve and alienating. We do things differently in this Academy.
Empathy is a key part of this creative experience.
Self-Care
In an organized manner, you will explore & learn about:
science-based brain-care and physical practices for calming overwhelm, working with trauma triggers and emotional pain
working skillfully with procrastination and not-good-enough-ness in all aspects of life and creative work
how and why editing works, and why it’s good for your brain-body-spirit
flow, mindfulness and self-hypnosis principles that I’ve been using successfully for decades
empathy and non-competition practiced here, two qualities essential for creativity (and often lacking in creative communities.)
Write and Edit
In the second hour of the evening, people are invited to bring particular manuscript or creativity struggles in; we’ll also discuss the pre-recorded material that you can watch before the live session.
As the weeks pass, people become more at ease with the live coaching and the question-answer format.
With the recorded craft and self-editing lessons, you can choose what YOU need
character/scene/narrative building
the engine of plot
the critical differences and similarity between fiction and nonfiction, along with aspects of poetic craft.
the importance of metaphor and thematic resonance
skilful, aware self-editorial: How to make your written work STRONGER
Whether it’s just for you or for your publisher, you will learn to skilfully improve your sentences, your paragraphs, and your whole narrative more skilfully and organically.
We tackle The Big Bang Question of most art. How do we, as creators, make our creations feel alive? What is the magic electrical spark?
The answer to that question dovetails with self-care and self-knowledge of our bodies, our brains and nervous systems. Our brains are full of tiny electrical and chemical sparks. Get ready to harness that energy.
Join the Courageous Writers’ Retreat!
Early Bird Offer (before June 15th): $ 1000 Can
( + $250 for Week Two, August 12-16)
CWR Regular Rate One-Time Payment after June 30: $1200 Canadian
( + $350 for Week Two, August 12-16)
CWR Flexible Payment: Four months x $ 320 Can/month starting in June. For Week One only.
Add 1-hour One-on-One Coaching + Substantive Editorial for 30 Pages of your work: Add $150 Canadian to the amounts above.
Alumni Rate: $400 Canadian for Week One,
$500 Total for Week Two.
Sales tax are added to the prices above. Each participant receives a tax-deductible education/professional development receipt. This is one of the most valuable investments a creative person can make, so it’s definitely a work/educational expense!
Full curriculum details available to participants in
early May 2025.
