Workshops with Partner Organizations
I offer writing workshops through partner organizations like Amherst Writers & Artists and CancerCare Manitoba.
Learn more about my work with Amherst Writers & Artists’ Power of Story, CancerCare Manitoba, and health professionals and medical learners.
Register for current offerings through the partner organization website.
The Art of Loss
SERIES: The Art of Loss (4 Weeks)
(with Jill Golick & Susan Wingert)
Thursdays
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm Eastern Time
September 3, 10, 17, & 24
Zoom
Cost: $80 USD
Grief touches every life, yet it can be difficult to speak about. Our daily social interactions may not have a place where talking about what is so present for us feels welcome.
But when we write about our losses in an AWA method workshop, we begin to uncover the strength, wisdom, and tenderness that live within those losses. This workshop is an invitation to turn toward your grief with curiosity and courage, to find words for what matters most, and to discover how your stories can bring comfort and connection. Together, we will create a community where each voice is valued and where writing becomes a powerful path toward recovery and renewal.
Workshops in the AWA method have been demonstrated to reduce isolation and loneliness through capturing and sharing stories with an affinity group of writers who share similar challenges.
In these workshops, participants will have a chance to deepen their writing in community.
For 2 hours, we will write to prompts with invitations to share, listen, and give strengths-based feedback on what has been shared.
Need-Based Assistance:
No one will be turned away because of financial challenges. If you cannot afford the workshop fee, this event does have a limited number of bursary-supported registrations available. You are invited to move forward with registration by selecting the "Bursary" ticket level; if all slots have already filled, please search for an alternate event with bursary slots available, or email powerofstory@amherstwriters.org if you still have questions.
Introduction to AWA
Thursday, September 10
5:00 to 7:00 pm Eastern Time
Zoom
Cost: Free
Did you learn about Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) through Writing Alone and With Others by Pat Schneider? New to AWA and curious how you can get involved? Interested in the AWA facilitator training program?
This is the perfect place to start if you're not sure what AWA is all about!
The first part of the workshop, we'll lead you through an AWA-method workshop, so you can experience what makes an AWA workshop so special. We'll write to prompts, read our brand new writing (if you choose), and give and receive strengths-based feedback.
Then, we'll have time for a Q & A session. We'll let you know about all we have to offer for writers, writer members, and trained AWA affiliates.
We look forward to writing with you at this free event.
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Health professionals and learners often confess that they were really nervous going into the workshop. Afterward, they report that the supportive and encouraging environment and complete control over their creative expression gave them the courage to open up and write. In the end, they say the workshop was something they really needed. As one family physician said, “We should create more opportunities to get together and only say nice things about each other.” Some use the writing time to explore the difficult things they have carried for a long time. Some write to reconnect with the reasons they went into healthcare and the ways in which they derive meaning and satisfaction from their practice. Some connect with their (often neglected) life and identity outside of healthcare. Experienced writers will often use their writing time to make headway on their works-in-progress. Through the practice of writing, important clinical skills related to observation, interpretation, point-of-view, verbal and non-verbal communication, empathy, and stress management are strengthened.
I have created workshops for courses, academic half days, wellness and appreciation days, and professional development seminars. Each workshop is customized to the group and their needs and goals.
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I began facilitating a writing peer support group through CancerCare Manitoba in 2022 as part of my work with the Alan Klass Program in Health and Humanities at the University of Manitoba. The workshops gave patients and caregivers who had experienced cancer a place to share their story, rewrite or recast it, and begin new chapters as they moved through and out of treatment. We were also able to play with creative expression and sometimes be silly and have fun. Some writers rekindled their love of creative writing, and experienced writers were able to continue building their portfolio. This workshop series is offered twice per year and is exclusively for patients and caregivers receiving care through CancerCare Manitoba.
The next session begins in the fall of 2026.
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The Power of Story is an initiative of Amherst Writers & Artists that brings the power of creative writing to groups whose voices are too often unheard or discounted. There are workshops for people experiencing grief and loss, living with invisible disabilities and chronic illness, who are or have been caregivers, teachers, and women going through the joys and challenges of aging.
Learn more about the Power of Story.