"Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names."

On-farm or virtual sessions available. 

A personalized, evidence-based program that uses structured writing practices to reduce stress, process difficult experiences, and create measurable change in your psychological and physiological well-being.

What You'll Do

Over eight weekly sessions, you'll work one-on-one with me using techniques grounded in three decades of research including the Pennebaker expressive writing protocol, bibliotherapy, perspective-shifting exercises, and embodied reflection practices.

Each 45-minute session includes:

• A centering practice to transition into reflective space
• Guided writing exercises tailored to your specific focus (trauma, grief, chronic pain, life transition, or ruminative thought patterns)
• Close reading and discussion of curated texts selected for your journey
• Reflection and integration of what emerges

Between sessions, you'll complete brief writing assignments that deepen the work and provide material for linguistic analysis. Session 8 is designed as an integration session: we'll review your progress, discuss how to continue your practice independently, and explore whether continued work together would serve you.

What You'll Get

Before We Begin

• Complimentary discovery call to determine fit
• Intake assessment: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to establish your baseline

Throughout the Program

• 8 x 45-minute private sessions (virtual or in-person at my farm in Johnson City, TN)
• Personalized bibliotherapy reading list curated specifically for your experiences and goals
• Session handouts with prompts for independent practice
• Between-session email support
• 3 written LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) analysis reports with personalized feedback—delivered at Sessions 1, 4, and 8—showing how your language patterns shift as you process and heal

At the End

• Post-program reassessment (PSS-10 and PANAS)
• Your Progress Portrait: A summary document showing your before-and-after assessment scores, key linguistic shifts across your three LIWC analyses, and facilitator observations on your growth

After the Program

• Optional booster session available 30-60 days post-program for check-in, troubleshooting, or deepening your practice

Potential Outcomes: Reduced trauma symptoms, increased emotional coherence, stronger sense of identity and purpose, sustainable personal writing practice and progress in craft, deeper self-understanding and improvement in certain physiological health markers. 

Who is this for?  Individuals processing medical diagnosis, treatment, or chronic illness; those navigating grief, loss or experiencing significant life transitions; people seeking to make sense of fragmented or traumatic experiences; writers and non-writers alike who want structured support in exploring personal narratives. 

Interested? Reach out to discuss how this practice might serve your own healing and artistic life.

You have a story to tell. Maybe it's a memoir that's been simmering for years, an essay collection taking shape, a novel that won't leave you alone. Maybe it's an academic book, a blog, a legacy project for your family. You know you need to write it. But knowing isn't the same as doing.

Writer's block isn't usually about not having ideas—it's about not having access to them. Fear, perfectionism, overwhelm, competing demands, old stories about who gets to call themselves a writer. The blank page becomes a mirror reflecting every doubt.

This coaching is for writers who are ready to stop waiting for the right moment and start building a practice that actually produces pages.

Developmental Coaching

For writers at the early or middle stages of a project—or those who can't seem to get past the early stages at all.

We work on the questions beneath the writing: What is this project really about? What's the emotional core? What structure serves the story? Where are you avoiding, and why? What would it mean to finish this?

I bring two decades of teaching writing at the university level, an MA in Creative Writing, and my own experience as a memoirist with a book forthcoming from a traditional press. I also bring training in therapeutic writing, which means I understand that creative blocks are rarely just craft problems—they're often emotional ones. We can work with both.

Editorial Feedback

For writers with pages who need a skilled reader.

I provide detailed, substantive feedback on manuscripts and works-in-progress: memoir, essay, narrative nonfiction, and hybrid forms. This isn't line editing or proofreading—it's developmental response that addresses structure, voice, pacing, scene construction, emotional resonance, and what's working versus what's getting in the way.

You'll receive written feedback plus a conversation to discuss the notes and plan next steps.

Accountability Partnership

For writers who know what to do but struggle to do it consistently.

Writing is solitary. Without external structure, it's easy for the manuscript to slide beneath everything else that demands your attention. This partnership provides the container: regular check-ins, agreed-upon goals, someone who notices when you don't show up for your own work.

This isn't about productivity hacks or word count pressure. It's about building a sustainable relationship with your writing life—one that accounts for resistance, fear, and the reality of your actual days.

Formats

Single Session

Best for: A specific craft question, feedback on a single piece, getting unstuck on a particular problem

One focused conversation. Come with a question, a manuscript excerpt (up to 15 pages), or a block you can't move past. Leave with clarity and next steps.

Includes:

• 60-minute video session
• Written summary of key insights and action items

Monthly Coaching (4 sessions)

Best for: Active projects needing regular support, writers building or rebuilding a practice

Four 60-minute sessions over one month, plus ongoing communication between sessions. We establish your goals, identify obstacles, and create a realistic plan—then we meet weekly to maintain momentum, troubleshoot, and keep you accountable.

Includes:

• 4 x 60-minute video sessions
• Email support between sessions
• Feedback on up to 20 pages of work-in-progress
• End-of-month review: what worked, what's next

Quarterly Intensive (12 sessions)

Best for: Book-length projects, writers committed to significant progress, those who need sustained accountability

Twelve 60-minute sessions over three months—the timeframe most writers need to build real momentum or complete a major milestone (draft, revision, proposal). This is my most comprehensive offering, combining coaching, editorial feedback, and accountability into an ongoing partnership.

Includes:

• 12 x 60-minute video sessions (weekly)
• Priority email support throughout
• Feedback on up to 100 pages of work-in-progress (in installments)
• Monthly progress reviews
• Optional: LIWC analysis of your writing to surface patterns in your voice and style
• Final session: Project assessment and sustainability plan for continuing independently

Manuscript Consultation – Editorial Only

Best for: Writers with a complete draft or substantial excerpt who need expert feedback without ongoing coaching

You send me your manuscript (up to 100 pages); I read it closely and provide detailed written feedback on structure, voice, pacing, scene, and overall effectiveness. We then meet for a 60-minute conversation to discuss the notes and your revision plan.

Includes:

• Close reading of up to 100 pages
• Written editorial letter (4-6 pages)
• 60-minute video consultation
• Follow-up email for lingering questions

What We Might Work On

Getting started

• Clarifying what your project actually is (and isn't)
• Finding your way into difficult material
• Developing a sustainable writing practice that fits your life
• Moving past perfectionism and permission problems

Moving forward

• Structuring a book-length work
• Building scenes that do emotional work
• Finding and refining your voice
• Navigating the middle—where most projects stall
• Integrating research, reflection, and narrative

Finishing

• Revising with intention (not just tinkering)
• Knowing when it's done
• Preparing submissions: query letters, synopses, proposals
• Understanding your publishing options

Unblocking

• Identifying what's really in the way
• Working with fear, resistance, and avoidance
• Writing through (not around) the hard parts
• Reconnecting with why this project matters

Who This is For

• Memoirists and essayists working on personal narrative
• Writers tackling difficult subject matter: trauma, illness, loss, family secrets
• Academics crossing into creative or public-facing writing
• Professionals with expertise and a book idea but no writing background
• Anyone with a story that won't let them go

I work primarily with narrative nonfiction—memoir, essay, hybrid forms—though I'm happy to discuss other projects.

Interested? Reach out to discuss how this practice might serve your own craft and writing life.

When we read alone, we engage with ideas. When we read together—and write in response—we engage with each other's humanity.

This monthly gathering brings together readers and writers who want more than plot summaries and star ratings. We come to be changed by what we read, to process what it stirs in us, and to witness how the same text opens different doorways for different souls.

Why Books and Writing Together? 

Reading expands our understanding. Writing deepens our integration. Community makes both last.

Research on bibliotherapy—the therapeutic use of literature—shows that engaging with narrative activates empathy, reduces isolation, and helps us process our own experiences through the mirror of another's story. When we add expressive writing to reflective reading, something additional happens: we move from passive consumption to active meaning-making.

The act of writing in response to what we've read consolidates memory, clarifies thought, and transforms vague reaction into articulated understanding. Sharing that writing in community creates what philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin called "dialogic space"—a place where multiple truths can coexist, where your interpretation illuminates mine, where we build collective wisdom from individual insight.

This isn't a traditional book club where we analyze themes and debate interpretations. It's a practice of deep reading, reflective writing, and witnessed exchange—a space to let literature do its oldest work: help us understand ourselves and each other.

What You'll Do

Each 60-minute session follows a rhythm designed for depth:

Arrival & Check-In
We begin by landing—setting aside the day's demands, acknowledging what we're bringing into the circle, creating intentional space for what's ahead.

Close Reading
We engage a passage from the month's book—reading it aloud, noticing language, sitting with what resonates or resists. This is slow reading, attentive reading, the kind that opens rather than consumes.

Guided Writing
You write in response to a prompt that bridges the book's themes with your own experience. This is private, exploratory writing—uncensored and unpolished, for your eyes only unless you choose to share.

Witnessed Sharing
Those who wish to read aloud do so. We receive each offering with curiosity and presence—no criticism, no workshopping, no fixing. Just listening. This practice of bearing witness transforms both reader and listener.

Book Discussion & Closing
We end with brief reflections on the text itself and what we'll carry forward, plus a preview of next month's selection.

MONTHLY FORMAT

Frequency: One 90-minute gathering per month
Commitment: Read the book beforehand; attendance encouraged but flexible for life's realities
Selections: Varied genres—memoir, literary fiction, poetry collections, essays—chosen for emotional resonance and narrative depth rather than trending titles

You'll receive:

• Monthly book selection announcement with context and themes
• Reading guide with reflection questions
• Post-session writing prompt for continued practice
• Access to our shared resource library of craft essays and additional readings

Who is this For? 

Deep Readers
Those who underline passages, dog-ear pages, and want to sit with a book rather than rush through it

Reluctant Writers
Those who haven't written since school but sense there's something they need to say

Processing Souls
People using literature to make sense of their own chapters—transitions, losses, growth, questions

Community Seekers
Those tired of superficial literary conversation and hungry for something more honest and human

Writers in Formation
Those building a regular writing practice in the company of others doing the same

Note: No previous writing experience required. All levels welcome. The only prerequisite is willingness to show up honestly.

What Emerges? 

Over time, this practice cultivates:

Deeper relationship with reading
Books become companions, not products to finish. You learn to read like a writer and live like a reader.

Access to your own voice
Regular, low-stakes writing builds fluency. What feels awkward at first becomes natural. What you couldn't say finds words.

Connection with fellow travelers
Shared reading and witnessed writing create bonds different from ordinary friendship—intimate, reciprocal, grounded in mutual vulnerability and trust.

Expanded empathy
Encountering others' responses to the same text stretches your perspective. You learn that multiple truths can coexist, that meaning is made together.

A sustainable practice
This isn't a course to complete. It's a rhythm to maintain—a monthly return to reflection, expression, and community that supports you through all of life's seasons.

Circle Details

Size: Max 30 participants (intimate enough for connection, diverse enough for varied perspectives) per circle.
Delivery: Virtually at a provided ZOOM link.
Commitment: Monthly attendance encouraged but flexible; life happens, we understand.
Confidentiality: Like Vegas, what's written and shared in the circle stays in the circle.
Cost: $15/month members | $20/month for non-members

Interested? Reach out to join the next circle or to discuss how this practice might serve your own reading and writing life.

Narrative medicine—the practice of close reading, reflective writing, and witnessing—has been shown to reduce burnout, preserve empathy, strengthen team communication, and improve patient outcomes. Originally developed at Columbia University, these methods are now integrated into medical education and clinical practice worldwide.

This workshop series brings narrative medicine training to your organization, customized to your clinical context and delivered in formats that fit your schedule.

The Evidence

Research demonstrates that narrative medicine interventions:

• Reduce burnout: Studies across emergency medicine, OB/GYN, pediatrics, and internal medicine residencies show that narrative medicine workshops are protective against emotional exhaustion, with higher attendance correlating with greater improvement
• Preserve empathy: Participants show sustained or improved scores on validated empathy measures (Interpersonal Reactivity Index), even as control groups decline
• Improve patient relationships: Clinicians trained in parallel charting report deeper understanding of patients' lived experiences and improved therapeutic relationships
• Strengthen teams: Shared narrative sessions build trust, normalize vulnerability, and create space for processing difficult cases together

What You'll Do

Each session follows the evidence-based structure used in narrative medicine programs globally:

Close Reading & Deep Listening
You'll engage with a carefully selected text—poetry, prose, visual art, or clinical narrative—learning to attend to language, silence, ambiguity, and what remains unsaid. These skills transfer directly to patient encounters: listening for what matters beneath the chief complaint.

Reflective Writing
Guided by a prompt, you'll write for 10-15 minutes in response to the reading or a clinical experience. This isn't polished prose—it's thinking on the page, a practice shown to enhance self-awareness, process moral distress, and prevent the accumulation of unmetabolized experience that leads to burnout.

Parallel Charting
Developed by Rita Charon, the parallel chart captures what belongs in the patient's story but not in the medical record: your observations, uncertainties, emotional responses, and the patient's experience of illness beyond clinical data. This practice builds narrative competence and has been shown to improve physician-patient relationships across specialties.

Witnessing & Discussion
In a structured, confidential space, participants share their writing (always voluntary) and receive it without judgment or interpretation. This witnessing—being heard by colleagues who understand the weight of care—is itself therapeutic, releasing oxytocin, reducing cortisol, and building the relational trust that sustains teams.

Workshop Formats

Half-Day Intensive (3-4 Hours)

Best for: Introduction to narrative medicine, team retreats, conference sessions

A concentrated immersion in narrative medicine methods. Participants experience two full cycles of close reading, writing, and discussion, leaving with practical tools they can use immediately.

Participants receive:

• Curated reading packet tailored to your clinical context
• Parallel chart template and guide
• Reflective writing prompts for independent practice

Multi-Session Series (4,8, or 12 weeks)

Best for: Sustained culture change, residency curricula, ongoing wellness programming

Weekly or biweekly 60-minute sessions that build narrative competence over time. This format produces the strongest outcomes in the research literature, allowing skills to develop and relationships to deepen. The series can be structured as:

• 4 weeks: Foundation in close reading, reflective writing, and parallel charting
• 8 weeks: Foundation plus advanced techniques (perspective-shifting, team narrative sessions, processing moral injury)
• 12 weeks: Comprehensive training with longitudinal parallel chart practice and optional LIWC linguistic analysis of writing samples

Participants receive:

• Weekly curated readings matched to your specialty and clinical challenges
• Session handouts with prompts and frameworks
• Parallel chart practice with optional written feedback
• Pre/post assessment measuring empathy (IRI), burnout (single-item measure or MBI-abbreviated), and perceived stress (PSS-10)
• Summary report for organizational leadership showing aggregate outcomes
• Certificate of completion with contact hours

Tailored to your Context

All workshops are customized based on:

• Specialty: Oncology, palliative care, emergency medicine, primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, mental health, and more
• Role: Physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, medical students, residents, or mixed interprofessional teams
• Focus: Clinician well-being, patient communication, team cohesion, or caregiver support
• Setting: Hospital, clinic, hospice, long-term care, or academic medical center

Readings, prompts, and case discussions are selected to resonate with your team's daily realities.

For Patients & Caregivers

Narrative medicine isn't only for clinicians. Workshops can also be designed for:

• Patients living with chronic illness, navigating diagnosis, or approaching end of life
• Family caregivers processing the experience of caring for a loved one
• Bereavement groups using writing to metabolize grief
• Support groups seeking structured ways to share and witness one another's stories

These sessions use the same evidence-based structure—reading, writing, sharing—adapted for non-clinical participants.

What Organizations Gain

For Leadership:

• Measurable outcomes demonstrating investment in staff well-being
• Pre/post data on burnout, empathy, and stress for quality improvement reporting
• Low-cost, high-impact intervention that complements existing wellness initiatives

For Teams:

• Protected time to process the emotional weight of care
• Shared language and practices that persist beyond the workshop
• Strengthened relationships that improve communication and collaboration

For Individuals:

• Practical tools for ongoing self-care
• Recognition that their experiences matter and deserve attention
• Connection with colleagues who understand

Assessment & Outcome Tracking

For multi-session series, all participants complete validated instruments at program start and finish:

• Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI): Measures cognitive and affective empathy
• Single-item Burnout Measure or Maslach Burnout Inventory (abbreviated): Tracks emotional exhaustion
• Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10): Assesses overall stress levels

Optional: LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) analysis of participant writing samples across the series, tracking linguistic markers associated with cognitive processing and emotional integration. Organizations receive an aggregate outcomes report; individual results remain confidential.

Logistics

Delivery: On-site at your facility or virtual (Zoom/Teams)
Group Size: Ideal 10-12 participants; larger groups can be accommodated with modified format
Scheduling: Flexible to fit grand rounds, protected didactic time, retreat schedules, or shift patterns
Materials: All readings and handouts provided digitally or in print

Potential Outcomes: Improved patient satisfaction scores, reduced provider burnout, enhanced team communication, deeper clinical insights. 

Who is this for? Physicians, nurses, and advanced practice providers seeking to deepen diagnostic listening and patient rapport; medical students and residents developing communication competencies and reflective practice skills; Social workers, chaplains, and counselors who serve as narrative witnesses in clinical settings; Healthcare administrators and team leaders addressing burnout and team cohesion challenges; patient & caregiver groups.

Interested? Reach out to discuss how a customized program might serve your community, organization, patients, caregivers, or employees.