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.
What Time Has Given: Exploring the Gifts and Challenges of Aging
Monday, June 8, 2026
1:00-3:00 pm Eastern
Zoom
Cost: $20 USD
What has your body learned that your younger self could not have imagined?
What have you lost—and what have you quietly gained?
Where have you become invisible, and where have you never been more yourself?
What truths are asking to be spoken now, before they harden into silence?
This writing workshop invites women to write into the tender, complicated territory of aging—not as a problem to solve, but as a landscape to enter.
Through carefully shaped prompts and unhurried writing time, we’ll explore the textures of this age: the griefs that arrive without ceremony, the freedoms that come when certain expectations finally loosen their grip, the ways time sharpens both longing and clarity.
We will write:
About the body as it is now.
About memory, inheritance, anger, tenderness, and relief.
About what no longer fits—and what, at last, does.
You don’t need polished stories or answers. You don’t need to be brave in advance.
You only need to be willing to listen for what this season of life is asking you to tell.
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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.