Free Workshop Series
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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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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You don't have to share anything. You can write privately for as long as you need.
No. Come to as many of the remaining sessions as you'd like. Each workshop connects but also stands alone.
Each session includes published examples, a writing prompt, a somatic or art-based prompt, and discussion time. Sharing your work is always optional.
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.
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."
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
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.
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