This September, join me in Boone, NC for a transformative workshop to help you cultivate your innate power to improve your health and wellbeing through self-expression with writing.

No writing experience or ambition is required. You will be guided through a progression of restorative writing exercises, which allow you to discover ways to manage stressful events and upheavals in your life through writing.

The act of writing engages internal healing resources that affect mental and physical health. You can change your stories to change your life.

You will learn 6 forms of restorative writing:

• Expressive Writing: removes obstacles and moves you beyond a personal, private emotional upheaval or crisis
• Transactional Writing: helps you take care of unfinished business and convey your feelings, expectations and intentions for yourself and others in a positive and loving way
• Poetic Writing: tells your story as you wish to tell it
• Affirmative Writing: centers your focus on your best qualities
• Legacy Writing: shares your values, life lessons and epiphanies with others
• Mindful Writing: uses 6 aspects of mindfulness to structure your written explorations

​You will go home with the knowledge and practice to incorporate the healing power of writing into your everyday life, and a collection of 24 writing prompts to use as practical starting points.

This program is open to all, and may be of particular benefits to those working in healthcare or helping professions.
CE Credits: This program has been accredited by Duke Integrative Medicine in Leading Others in Writing for Health.

Transform Your Health: Write to Heal is a 6-week, online course that provides a technique, based on research in writing and wellness, to overcome traumas and emotional upheavals that keep you from being your best self.  Research has shown that working through issues can lead to improved health and better resilience.  Expressive writing in particular can decrease heart rate, lower blood pressure, enhance breathing, strengthen the immune system, improve self-esteem and help manage stress.  

Enrolling now for new class starting February 1st. ONLY 10 SEATS REMAINING!

Group Rate: $295 per student

Individual Rate: $495

Contact me ASAP to reserve your seat. 

A clinical study was recently featured in the February 2019 edition of ​Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice which looks at the feasibility and results of implementing Write to Heal in an outpatient setting. 

BACKGROUND

Trauma is highly prevalent, with estimates that up to 90% of the U.S. population have been exposed to a traumatic event. The adverse health consequences of trauma exposure are diverse and often long-lasting. While expressive writing has been shown to improve emotional and physical health in numerous populations, the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a novel expressive writing program provided in a clinical setting to improve resilience is unknown. Our objective was to determine the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a 6-week expressive writing course provided in a clinical setting to improve resilience in individuals with a history of trauma.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Transform Your Life: Write to Heal program is feasible to implement in outpatient settings.
• The program was relatively simple to implement and well-received.
• Participants improved their resilience, depression symptoms, perceived stress and rumination.

You can read the full abstract and study here. 

Are you a physician, nurse, mental health professional, hospice worker, health coach, or other healthcare professional?

This 2-day workshop is designed for anyone working in the healthcare field and provides experiential training with easily adaptable lessons, activities, and guideposts to use with your clients and patients.

This workshop will be held May 2-3, 2019 at Duke Integrative Medicine. 

Join instructors John F. Evans and Karen Jooste as they lead you through progressive learning that incorporates Reasons for Writing for Health including... 

The workshop will lead you through progressive learning that incorporates these reasons for Writing for Health:

• Creating vision
• Setting intentions
• Assessing status
• Stimulating thinking for insight and understanding
• Expressing and defining readiness to change
• Clarifying importance and building confidence
• Changing perception and perspective
• Facilitating mindfulness practice
• Measuring progress
• Removing obstacles to build and resilience
• Encouraging staying on track
• Creating, developing, and supporting exuberance
• Producing opportunities to flourish
• Building resilience
• Communicating gratitude, empathy and compassion
• Affirming strengths

Early Registration Deadline:  April 12, 2019

Last Day to Register:  April 26, 2019

Don't miss this opportunity to learn how to better equip your patients to heal!

“Writing about stressful situations is one of the easiest ways for people to take control of their problems and release the negative effects of stress from their bodies and their lives.” -James Pennebaker, PhD

ENROLLING NOW!

This program  is an advanced study program based on expressive writing research, practices, and principles as described in a growing body of literature related to writing and health. After successfully completing the Expressive Writing Facilitator Course, the candidate will be certified to teach Transform Your Health: Write to Healᵀᴹ. 

CANDIDATES

The ideal candidates have professional credentials or experience in healthcare, or a related service field, such as counseling, education, or intensive writing experience as a caregiver.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Minimum requirements are as follows:
 
1. WWC 9000 - Transform Your Health: Write to Heal
 
OR
 
WWC 9100 - Leading Patients in Writing for Health. This is a professional training focusing on the guiding principles and characteristics of affirmative, expressive, poetic, transactional, H.E.A.L ing, mindful, and legacy writing and how they may be applied in a healthcare setting or individually. (Offered once a year at Duke Integrative Medicine, group rates available)
 
2. WWC 9200 – Expressive Writing Research Project. This is completed individually in the form of a study of studies developed in collaboration with program director.

3. WWC 9300 – Mindful Writing. This 6-week experiential program examines the six As of Mindful Writing; Appreciation, Affection, Affirmation, Awareness, Attention, Acceptance.
 
4. WWC 9400 - Expressive Writing Practicum. This is a 6-week supervised practice using poetic, affirmative, expressive, transactional, , legacy and mindful writing with individuals or a group.
 
5. WWC 9500 - Wellness and Writing Workshop Portfolio - The candidate will use materials with prompts and evaluations for three settings and/or clients. Tor example: Rehabilitation Centers, Wellness Centers, Children's Hospitals, Cancer Clinics, At-Risk 6th grade Students, Women's Prisons, Hospice Services, ICU nurses, Retirement Communities, Prisons.
 
COURSE TIMELINE

It is recommended for the candidate to complete this certification program within 12 months of their application.  Most modules will be completed in six weeks or less. Support, coaching, and mentoring is offered by email or phone or online video chat. This certification course is limited to 6 candidates per cohort. 

PROGRAM COSTS

Receive a 10% discount when you register by February 21st. Fees are due prior to starting the certification program unless other arrangements have been made in advance. The total cost for the Expressive Writing Facilitator Certification Program is $2495 including WWC 9000. If you have already completed WWC 9000 or WWC 9100, your total program cost is $1995. Payment plan options are available. 
 
COURSE DETAILS

• Modules will be delivered by email. 
• Weekly video chat sessions are required during each module. 
• Group communication is encouraged in a Facebook group dedicated to your cohort. 

HOW TO APPLY 
​
Before applying for admission to the certification program, a thirty-minute phone interview is recommended.   A complete application includes a nonrefundable deposit of $100 USD, a vita, and a personal statement.  Please contact us for an application and to set up your interview. Last day to register is February 28th. 
​