Free Workshop Series

Writing Trauma May 16 – June 27 · 11am–12:30pm PT
+ BONUS Workshop June 24, 11am–1pm PT

A free series on techniques for writing through and about trauma with safety, space, and somatic awareness. Come to one or all sessions. Everyone is welcome.

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The Series

Four Workshops

Bonus

Wednesday June 24 · 11am–1pm PT · on Zoom

Pack Your Writing Survival Kit

A two-hour gathering on Wednesday June 24 at 11am to 1pm PT, on Zoom.

We'll spend the first part writing together, then spend the rest getting to know the Survival Kit Writing Collective and answering your questions.

For the writing, we'll pack a survival kit on the page. Rather than digging into the hardest thing, we'll gather what has kept us here: the objects, people, songs, and small rituals that sustain you, and write through them. We'll read a couple of short pieces together, then write our own. This is a trauma-informed space. No experience needed, no pressure to share, and no need to write about anything you're not ready for.

Then, since the presale opens that same day, I'll walk you through what the collective actually is: the monthly guests, body doubling, Breaking Breath Together, and the whole community, and answer anything you'd like to know.

Come for the writing, stay to meet the collective, or just drop in to see what this is. Everyone is welcome.

Upcoming

Saturday June 27 · 11am–12:30pm PT

Haunting Through the Ghost of You

Sign up because you're the type of ghost who wants to haunt directly. No mediation. You're a bit like Casper in that way, aren't you? Get access to what may feel otherwise unsayable.

Writing in the second person is often a major no-no in creative writing instruction. It's not wrong, it's just a bit tricky. But when done right, it may haunt you, and it may open up some space for interacting with someone or something in ways other points of view would not allow if you said "I."

Past

Saturday May 16

Haunted House Costume Party

Sorrow your fears in the voice of Ted Lasso, epic your father's sins through Medusa, Odysseus your grief through the voice of the Trojan Horse. Writing in persona can help us spark the emotional truths of our memories through other bodies and tongues. We can speak without full disclosure. We can myth ourselves into light.

This workshop helps you step into the haunted houses of your memories and reveal the ghosts in the attics without ever having to tell us exactly what you found there.

Past

Saturday May 30

Your Grocery List May be an Elegy

Write a how-to guide on how to survive a rainstorm that really tells the story about you surviving them.

Write a grocery list for the last day of your life that really tells the story of how scared you are of letting them down.

Learn how to write about your emotions around the events rather than every single detail of the event itself.

Past

Saturday June 13

Soundtrack Your Way into a Spell

It was the cold of 1977 that Kate Bush high-kicked herself into the ghost of Cathy, mourning a haunted love that keeps being unburied. That song has transported me back to many old homes, smells, and sparks.

Sometimes sound is a soundtrack, sometimes a coo, a lullaby, a riff, a requiem. In this workshop, we will explore song as muse, as soma, as spell to body memories to the surface.

Good to Know

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to share my writing?

Sharing is always optional, but space will always be made for it during the workshops. If you decide to share, you can share about what you wrote in the workshop or what your experience of writing the prompt was like. No pressure either way.

Do I have to write about my own trauma?

No. A lot of people come to me because they want to write specifically through trauma. Other people are writing about trauma, but not about their own. And even if you are writing through your trauma, these workshops will help you find genres and forms to do so safely and productively.

Is this therapy?

No. I do not have a clinical license. My PhD is in creative writing. While your life may inform your writing, this is a writing and wellness practice, not therapy.

Do I need writing experience?

No. But all of us are already writers in some way. We text, we write emails, reports, letters, social media posts. The collective will give you tools to explore that identity and practice.

What if I feel too exposed?

You don't have to share anything. You can write privately for as long as you need.

Do I need to come to both workshops?

No. Come to as many of the remaining sessions as you'd like. Each workshop connects but also stands alone.

What happens in a typical workshop?

Each session includes published examples, a writing prompt, a somatic or art-based prompt, and discussion time. Sharing your work is always optional.

Who is this for?

Anyone who has something difficult they need to write, no matter the genre, and wants a place that is safe, productive, and generative. All writing is welcome: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, screenplays, etc.

Will the workshops be recorded?

No. The workshops will not be recorded so that people feel safe and comfortable participating.

"Erik's teaching helped me transform the traumatic events in my life into art. I started to release a lot of pain that I experienced into light and to have a greater sense of compassion for myself."

Your Facilitator

Erik Fuhrer

I am a trauma survivor, and so much was unspeakable to me for so long. Then, I started writing letters to Buffy Summers. And memories I was never before able to write or speak flooded out.

This work became two books: My Buffed Up Life and Gellar Studies. From there, I developed a trauma writing course at UCLA Extension from this personal writing methodology, drawing on my previous trauma-informed teaching and facilitation work, and have convened workshops on trauma, pop culture, and identity at venues such as USC. My work has also been featured in Psychology Today.

Ph.D., University of Glasgow · MFA, University of Notre Dame

What Comes Next

Survival Kit Writing Collective

For Writers & Humans

Survival Kit Writing Collective

A trauma-informed writing & wellness practice

A community for people writing through trauma and other difficult material. Reflection and inner work is paired with writing work to serve the whole person. We explore persona, myth, fragment, and genre shift as possible ways of expressing trauma with the goal of finding the right approach for your individual needs, writing style, and voice. Opens July 1.

Learn More

What a Month Includes

A Writing Practice guest: a writer leading a themed writing session.
An Embodied & Expressive Practice guest: somatic movement, embodied imagination, tarot and creativity, or expressive arts.
A craft workshop with Erik: a focused session on a craft theme, in the spirit of the free Writing Trauma workshops.
A journal discussion: we read a literary journal together and talk about where your own work might fit and how to send it out.
Breaking Breath Together: a monthly Sunday open mic and feedback session, where we share what the week’s prompts shook loose and respond to each other’s work. No pressure to read.
Body doubling, four days a week: write in company, each on your own work. Mornings Monday and Wednesday, evenings Tuesday and Thursday.
The Daily Kit Bag: a daily practice of gratitude, noticing, and naming what you’re working on.
A weekly prompt: alternating craft with expressive or somatic exploration.
An open AMA thread: ask Erik anything about writing, process, or the literary world. Answered Fridays.
A community space: connect with other writers and share work, as much or as little as you like.

July Guest Speakers

Rosebud Ben-Oni

“When We Come Back from the Dead: A Poetic Speculative Realism Reading & Talk”

Susanna Velarde Covarrubias

“The Imaginal Body: Dreamwork & the Alchemy of Creative Writing”

August Guest Speakers

Cheryl Pappas

Craft Talk

Chelsey Pippin Mizzi

Workshop