Writing To Heal
Making Sense of and Transforming Our Stories
An embodied practice to step into healing and wholeness.
In this class, get research, tools, lessons, practices, community, and support to come into greater healing through writing and understanding your story.
Designed for those healing and those helping others heal….
NOW CLOSED FOR ENROLLMENT
Total value:
$5,000+ but it's hard to put a price on this transformative practice! Only $797 or three payments of $277.
Sign up FOR the waitlist to be notified when the course opens again.
15 day money back guarantee for people who take action
If you are a teacher, doctor, therapist, healer, or writer, check with your workplace and tax consultant. You might be able to get continuing education credits for the class. And for many, it will be tax deductible.
Reach out to Nadia here at nadia@nadiacolburn.com if you have any questions.
Why Writing to heal?
Scientific studies, spearheaded by James Pennebaker, PhD, in the 1980s and 1990s, showed that writing is some of the most powerful medicine there is.
If done with the correct methods, writing often decreases symptoms of chronic illness, PTSD, doctors' visits, and more by 50%.
Similar studies show that writing also increases participants' chances of getting the job they apply for by 50%.
Effective writing practices allow the mind and body to understand, process, integrate, and release tension and emotion; it supports immune functioning and emotional well being.
But not all writing is inherently healing.
We'll be discussing the best ways to use writing as a tool for healing, as well as the research, practices, and reasons behind the effectiveness of writing.
A bridge between our inner and outer worlds, writing allows us to shape our stories so that we are not victims of them.
In this trauma-informed class, we'll experience the ways the written word becomes a pathway to wellbeing, self-compassion, healing, and freedom.
The practices foster long-term growth beyond the course itself. Join me!
Are you wondering...
✦ What if your healing need not be quite so hard?
✦ What if there were ways to integrate and diminish the load of trauma and illness?
✦ What if your body could release, let go of what it’s been carrying for so long and hold it differently?
✦ What if your writing gave you new access to your body, story, and spirit?
✦ What if you could see your full story and full self with reverence and appreciation?
✦ What if in the next ten weeks you had new practices and a new community for yourself, your healing, and expression?
✦ What if healing were not “selfish,” but an act of justice, courage, and love?
✦ What if this were an important step in a process of growth and transformation that will lead you to exciting new places and new fuller living?
This course invites you into an integrated relationship with healing—healing not only as a private project but also as a path toward wholeness, equality, spiritual enlightenment, ecological balance, and ongoing freedom
NOTE:
I am not a doctor or therapist, and I always recommend working with licensed professionals to support healing. This class cannot guarantee healing from any particular condition.
If you are in a situation where the wounds are very new and raw or if you are in a situation where you do not feel physically safe, this is not the right class for you. In that case, I encourage you to get one-on-one support and come to this class later.
What this course can do is give you new tools and practices to complement the other work you are doing and to place some of the power of healing within your own authority.
Let’s get this straight.
To heal, we need to understand the story of who and where we are.
When we we are ill, when we are grieving, when we experience trauma, something in our narrative breaks.
To be well, we need to understand what happened, process the imbalance, and find a path forward.
Writing is a tool to understand this process, to integrate past, present and future, and to come into greater wellbeing.
Many of us have mistaken ideas of what healing means and how to go about it…
When you use this method, you will not get stuck in the grief or trauma, but be given a place to process and shift the story.
You will allow yourself a fuller range of emotion and freedom.
With this technique, the page becomes a place to hold your story so that your body doesn't need to hold it all.
You don't just go into the dark, but also open up new areas of possibility and light.
You're not alone, but have trusted guides, companions, and community.
Healing takes time, it takes patience, and it is iterative work. That’s why the course comes with lifetime access to the practices and teachings.
Some people ask me, how do we heal when the world itself is breaking?
Is it even fair to focus on the self when there are so many people in need?
My response is simple: don’t allow the brokenness to keep you broken. Don’t allow the destruction to overtake the power of repair and growth and life.
When we do this work of healing, we shift not only our own story, but also come to rewrite and shift the collective story. We are all interconnected.
When we invest in our own healing, we become agents of wholeness. We believe, in our own bodies, from the inside out, that healing is possible.
We become beacons of light.
Why this program?
In this class we will explore writing as a tool to healing; we will study the work of teachers like James Pennebaker, Natalie Goldberg, Julia Cameron, Louise De Salvo and others who have done groundbreaking work on using writing as a tool for growth.
But the role of writing is not the focus of this course.
Instead, the focus is on how to go about understanding and processing–in mind body and in spirit– our life experiences.
We will be asking the question: how do I make sense of, understand, and come to peace with those parts of myself and my story that feel fractured, painful and sometimes too difficult to even look at?
How do I come into a place of comfort so that the things that distract me, that are uncomfortable, dissipate and I'm able to come into the freedom and presence that I want–and deserve?
I will be giving you many specific frameworks to guide your writing so that you can approach this healing work from a larger, theoretical, historic, psychological and spiritual perspective.
We will be learning from indigenous teachers and buddhist philosophy, from trauma therapists and developmental psychologists, historians and anthropologists, doctors and social workers, yogis and writers for a truly integrative approach to our writing.
Some of the experts we’ll be reading and learning from include Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Judith Herman, bell hooks, Alice Miller, Bessel Van Der Kolk, Resmaa Menakem, Sherri Mitchell, Gabor Mate, Thich Nhat Hanh, Tara Brach, and many others.
As we do this work of study and personal inquiry and practice, writing is an invaluable tool for understanding, self-reflection, expression, and revision.
Because our stories and healing never take place in the mind alone, our writing will be paired with embodied and meditative practices.
We’ll be learning to quiet the mind and listen to the stories that the body holds and wants to express.
NOW CLOSED FOR ENROLLMENT
Total value:
$5,000+ but it's hard to put a price on this transformative practice! Only $797 or three payments of $277.
Sign up for the waitlist to be notified when the course opens again.
15 day money back guarantee for people who take action-(see full policy below)
If you are a teacher, doctor, therapist, healer, or writer, check with your workplace and tax consultant. You might be able to get continuing education credits for the class. And for many, it will be tax deductible.
How is Writing To Heal Different?
Tap into creative, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being.
Tap into creative, emotional,
spiritual, and physical well-being
My Journey
I’m Nadia Colburn, PhD, RYT 200.
I’m the author of two award-wining poetry books. I’m an essayist and memoir writer, and my work has been published in more than 80 publications, including The New Yorker, Lions Roar, Slate, and The Harvard Review.
I’m also the founder of the Nadia Colburn online writing school, where I’ve helped thousands of students step into their full creative voice–and also heal!
Now I want to share with you what I’ve learned on my own long, twisty path of healing, with writing as a guide.
In my own healing from chronic illness and childhood trauma, I’ve done enormous amounts of work—and research–I’ve healed through talk therapy, EMDR, somatic therapy; I’ve developed deep meditation practices, been trained as a yoga teacher, engaged in Native American healing techniques, and other spiritual and energetic healing work.
And each step of the way, writing has guided me, helped me integrate the other modalities, make sense of who I am, where I’ve been, and who I want to be.
Without writing, I would not have been able to heal as fully.
Writing wasn’t always as transformative for me. I used to journal, and I found that while journaling helped me feel less alone, it didn’t necessarily make me change or heal. I often found myself repeating old patterns.
But over the years, I developed understanding and practices that allowed me to step out of old patterns and integrate all the different healing modalities that I’ve practiced and studied.
I want to share a path to this fullness with you.
Here’s how it’s all put together:
The class is taught/ will be released from January 30-April 10th. And once you enroll, you have lifetime access to the teachings!
Each class is 2-2.5 hours and includes teachings, practice, Q and A, discussion.
With each Module you’ll get:
Teaching Sessions
Talks weaving together personal story, history, feminist thought, healing modalities, spirituality, research and more.
Detailed prompts to guide your writing.
I offer a method that will both guide you through steps and give you flexibility to create your own path within that framework.
Guided Meditations
These gentle body-based, contemplative practices help you quiet the mind, listen to your body and your own wisdom, understand your stories, and integrate the material. Paired with the writing, they help you go even deeper. Practices include meditations, chanting, yoga, somatics, and more.
Embodied Practices
These gentle body-based practices will guide you to move, shift energy, and listen to your body and your own wisdom, understand your stories, and integrate the material. Practices include various forms of yoga, body scans, dancing, and more.
Suggested readings
Suggested readings from doctors, therapists, philosophers, indigenous healers, scientists, spiritual teachers to go deeper. Our work will be guided by teachings, research, and practices from experts, and I will provide excerpts of passages that you can read within the course.
Q&As and Discussion
Questions and Answers with Nadia and discussion with community. A supportive, welcoming space where everyone is honored.
Here's what's included in Writing to heal
We’ll spend 1-2 weeks per module (including two catch-up weeks)
Module 1
Writing to Heal
Module 1 — Writing to Heal
We'll get grounded together and begin to get acquainted with some of the foundational terms and concepts of the course. We'll discuss the most healing forms of writing, the technique behind them and the benefits of different modalities.
Module 2
Writing as a Tool for Self Knowledge
Module 2 — Writing as a Tool for Self Knowledge
We'll consider the importance of self understanding, what we mean by "self" and the role of story. We'll look closely at breaks in narrative and how to come back to coherence.
Together, we'll explore:
- What narrative therapy and narrative medicine are and the research behind them
- Writing to heal: the science and immune system
- Different forms of writing–expressive writing, poetry, mythic writing, journaling, memoir, etc, and the benefits of each
- What is the self? large self and small self…
- Identity–individual, family, culture, spirit, earth, and more
- The unsayable: What happens to language in trauma and coming back together…
- What happened? What is your story?
Module 3
Listening to the Body
Module 3 — Listening to the Body
We'll examine the history of the mind-body split and re-integration. We'll look at findings from scientific studies.
We'll explore the body and our development as children and humans; the body and emotions; and the body and trauma, and the body's wisdom.
Together, we'll explore:
- Healing & movement; healing & food; and healing & gut health
- Yoga, somatic therapy, and the vagal system
- Childhood
- Writing and Feeling
- What happened to you?
We'll also have special sessions with guest teachers leading us in different embodied practices.
Module 4
Grief
Module 4 — Grief
Whether you are experiencing loss, trauma, or illness, when we heal, there is something we are grieving. Things are not what we wish: we may struggle with disappointment, shame, and acceptance. We will make space for this grief and support one another as we gently tune into it.
Together, we'll explore:
- Grief for others and grief for self
- Anger and grief
- The stages of grief
- Resistance and acceptance
- Control and lack of control
Module 5
Wisdom of Healing Across Traditions — and Broadening Our Perspective
Module 5 — Wisdom of Healing across traditions...and Broadening our perspective
We will turn our attention to the wisdom of Indigenous healing and healing across traditions. We'll explore different perspectives on what it means to heal and on wholeness, spirituality, balance, and the meaning of our lives.
We'll explore:
- What is your story, what is your self…
- How is your story speaking to you? The story beneath the story...
- Mind-body-emotions-spirit.
- Ceremony.
Module 6
Rewriting and Revising Our Stories…
Module 6 — Rewriting and Revising our Stories…
We'll explore how healing, understanding our stories, and transformation are iterative, lifelong practices. We'll consider the political and social stories that we are rewriting as we do this work — how personal healing and alignment contributes to coming into a more aligned, just, equitable, world. We'll look at the connections between healing and feminism, ecology, democracy, and a de-colonized world view.
We'll explore:
- Time, impermanence and change.
- Healing and other art forms: dance, visual arts, etc.
- Embodied practices.
- Spirals of healing.
- The power of language.
- Interconnection.
- Sharing your story and moving beyond healing yourself to helping others.
Come to the class live or enjoy the recordings on your own schedule
Each session runs 2-2.5 hours, depending on how many questions I get. (Find your time zone here.)
While the teachings will be delivered live, you are not expected to come live.
We have students around the world in different time zones and with different schedules.
All classes will be recorded, and you can watch them on your own schedule. Students can always ask questions before the live teachings. Recordings will be available in video, audio, and text format, and there will be workbooks for each Module so you can engage with the lessons in whatever format you like.
The class also comes with Bonus three months membership in the Align community, where there are live coaching sessions at least 3 times a month at different times of the week (in addition to the teachings below) to fit as many people's schedules as possible and where there is a 24/ 7 online community space.
Here is the schedule of the live teachings. The replays will be available 24 hours later and you will have lifetime access to those.
- Friday, Jan. 30th at 12pm ET
- Thursday, Feb 5th at 3pm ET
- Friday, Feb 13th at 12pm ET
Week of Feb. 16th: Catch up week
- Thursday, Feb. 26th at 3pm ET
- Friday, March 6th at 12pm ET
Week of March 9th: Catch up week (but an Align community bonus session will be offered)
- Thursday, March 19th at 3pm ET
- Friday, March 27th at 12pm ET
- Thursday, April 2nd at 3pm ET
- Friday, April 10th at 12pm ET
✦
You'll also get these bonuses:
($2000+ value):
SIGN UP FOR LIFETIME ENROLLMENT
This class is unlike any other.
We'll be learning about healing across traditions and using writing, meditation and embodied practices as a tool to listen to, unearth, and heal our own stories and our collective stories.
In this dark time, become an agent of light. Step into your own wholeness.
When you add up the components of the course, the total value is almost $5,000.
But, it's hard to put a price on the value of this course. To heal is to take back our lives in mind, body and spirit.
Enroll today for just $797 or three payments of $277.
One Payment Of
$797
Three Payments Of
$277
If you are a teacher, doctor, therapist, healer, or writer, check with your workplace and tax consultant. You might be able to get continuing education credits for the class. And for many, it will be tax deductible.
15 day money back guarantee for people who take action
Signing up for this course is an investment in yourself, your wellbeing and your future. I want to encourage you to honor that commitment. So I ask that you put in some time with the material in order to get a refund.
Because the course comes with lifetime enrollment, not having time to do it is not a reason to get your money back. If you don't have time now, you can always come back to the material later. I stand 100% behind the quality of the course. If you’re not satisfied, I offer a 100% money-back guarantee.
You must show me that you have done the work of the first two modules to get money back–watch the recordings and do one writing prompt per module and reflection (show me the reflection).
Love notes from some of my students
CAMErON L. MARZELLI, PH.D.
Expressive Therapies, Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lesley University Certified Reiki Master, Co-Founder: Still Woman, Director of Spiritual Education: Villa Serra Retreat Center
My work with Nadia was personally and professionally transformative. I deepened my understanding of the psychological and spiritual benefit of attending to detail, and of recognizing significance in the ordinary. Nadia taught me to be still, to befriend silence, to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity so as to penetrate “what happened”, in order to recognize what I was meant to learn from my situation and experience. She encouraged and supported patience as a necessary skill ; she helped me dispel illusion and come to know what needs to be known in order to embrace growth and productive change.
MARILYN LEVINE
MIT Faculty member, Comparative Media Studies and Writing
Nadia Colburn is an unusually gifted presence and teacher, helping many transform their practice and their willingness to trust themselves enough to get to the heart of what they are trying to say.
Nadia is that rare teacher who creates an atmosphere of trust and honesty. Nadia brings a rare balance to her teaching: deep reflection and critical thinking about language, ideas, images, and meaning; and a compassionate, open heart that allows everyone to feel safe sharing and offering personal responses to one another.
TAWONA PEARSON
Therapist
The encouragement and level of acceptance I felt from Nadia and the group allowed me to move past the embarrassment and deal with this unresolved trauma around being seen and heard. My authentic voice had been buried under all of this fear and was ready to come alive and working with Nadia was an opportunity to come out of hiding. The course gifted me the opportunity to heal what was in the way of my own inner knowing of my own voice.
I've being more and more honest about what I feel and what I know to be true for me and not twisting up my words on the page or preventing the words from coming out.
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart Nadia! You are an amazing teacher and I am so lucky to work with you. I actually developed my first course on The Emotional Trauma of What Others Might Think or Feel About Us. And I'm in the process of finishing my poetry memoir - I'm doing things I only dreamed of doing - and you are a huge part the reason."
JILL BURGCHARDT
“
I was recently divorced after 40 years, and my work with Nadia provided me a safe space for exploring and writing about tough memories. Being part of a community...working hard to find their voices and invest in their own healing through writing has been an important part of the journey. I was able to find write more fluidly and opened up a process of deep healing.
I am stronger, more authentic, and have more love for myself as a result. And my writing has improved, too! I can now write more objectively and compassionately not only toward myself, but also toward others. Thank you for this transformational experience!“
“
“For a long time, trying to write felt like poking at a hot bruise of self-doubt and fear. Working with Nadia, catalyzed a fundamental change in me. It finally allowed me to achieve coherence between my spiritual, physical and creative lives—something I’d been looking for that all of my life without knowing where to find it.
IRINA D.
“
You gave me a tool that has helped me an immense amount in the midst of a very difficult year.
As a result of the work I did with you, I was able to deal with something that had been weighing on me for ages. The relief is enormous.
I’m writing this with tears of gratitude in my eyes. I sought guidance from many places this year, and the most useful was yours. Thank you.
❝
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that taking my first class with Nadia was a life-changing event. I had been stuck in some old challenging patterns that I couldn’t break out of and something unexpected opened in me.
Tyler Paterson
Teacher and Writer
❝
Nadia is amazing! She really loves what she teaches. She looks very deeply at life and then lives it very authentically. She inspires everyone around her to do the same. Just being in her presence is a gift you give yourself! So don’t hesitate, work with Nadia. It will transform your life!
Natalie Matushenko
Coach and Writer
NOW CLOSED FOR ENROLLMENT
Total value:
$5,000+ but it's hard to put a price on this transformative practice! Only $797 or three payments of $277.
Sign up for the waitlist to be notified when the course opens again.
15 day money back guarantee for people who take action
If you are a teacher, doctor, therapist, healer, or writer, check with your workplace and tax consultant. You might be able to get continuing education credits for the class. And for many, it will be tax deductible.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do you have questions about Writing To Heal? I answer the most common questions below.
But if you have a question that isn't answered below, email me directly at nadia@nadiacolburn.com.
Yes, and yes! Full healing depends on wholeness, and wholeness depends upon our full orientation to the world. So, if you are Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Jewish, following an Earth Centered Religion, agnostic, or anything else, you are very welcome here. What is important is that you come to understand your own story and your own healing in terms of your own orientation and belief. There have been numerous scientific studies that show that prayer significantly increases people's ability to heal. We'll be looking at those studies and learning across traditions about healing modalities and paths so that you can understand and make decisions about what is best for you.
We’ll have nine 2-2.5 hour live sessions on Zoom, all of which will be recorded so you can watch later if you can’t attend live. You’ll also receive lifetime access to all recordings and materials.
I'm teaching this class live because some people like to come to live teachings--if you can come to some, great, but if you can't make the sessions live, don't fret! We have community members from around the globe in different time zones, and people have different schedules. Everything will be recorded, and then you will be able to have access to those recordings in video format as well as audio--if you want to listen as if to a podcast--and in text format! The class also comes with workbooks, lots of bonuses, and more--all with lifetime access.
The class also comes with a BONUS membership in my Align Community where there is 24/7 online community space (I'll be there to answer questions) and there are at least 2 live coaching/ writing sessions per month.
Plan for about 2-4 hours per week: We will be doing embodied practices and writing together in he live/recorded sessions. But you might also want optional time for additional practices, reading, and integration. You are encouraged to move at the pace that feels right for your body and life. You get lifetime access to the recordings and teachings.
Yes. While no space can guarantee complete safety, this course is grounded in trauma-aware, consent-based principles: choice, pacing, and respect for your nervous system. You are always invited to pause, adapt, or skip any practice.
We will have specific methods and practices to avoid being retriggered. These include meditations both before and after writing, practicing joy and writing about what delights you, seeing your stories in a larger context, and getting lots of support. It is true that writing about difficult things might make you feel a little worse for a short period, but in the long run, studies— and my own experience and work with students—show again and again that people who write to heal feel better, freer, and more full of energy for the long term. This is powerful medicine.
That is perfectly normal. You're very welcome here. One of the most common experiences of trauma, illness, and grief is that it takes our sense of understanding and our language away. Many of us have times when we know that something is wrong, misaligned, uncomfortable or even painful, but it's not possible for us to name it precisely. This course is designed to help you get more comfortable even with the not knowing and the silences; it will help give language and story to the unsayable; it will help you explore, and will give you different tools to write into those uncertain places. This class will meet you where you are so that you feel seen even in the places that are most unclear.
If you feel inclined to take the class, I encourage you to say yes to it. Our health and healing are our most precious gifts. Even 1-2 hours a week with the course can make a big difference. And it comes with lifetime access so you can go back and watch all the teachings and work with the prompts and extra practices and readings on your own schedule. This course is designed to meet you where you are.
If you've read this far, I encourage you to listen to what is right for you.
No, you are not expected to share your story or writing. This is a place to be supported by community, and that will happen in a number of ways, but not as a kind of group therapy session or a traditional writing class.
You will be encouraged to write for yourself and to establish a safe and loving relationship with yourself and your writing. You never need to share anything until you are ready. Nor are you expected to listen to and read other people's stories--unless you want to and only in carefully curated situations.
Each module comes with prompts as well as reflections on your own writing process. If and when you want to share with the community, you are encouraged to share the reflections, not the original writing. We do this so that the community space is one where people don't experience being overwhelmed.
Similarly, the purpose of this course is not to get feedback on your writing, and this class cannot offer the kinds of one-on-one support that you would get in therapy. But there will be question and answer periods in all of the sessions, and if you can't make them live, you can ask in advance. I, along with our community coach, will be in the online community space to answer questions and support you. And you will have a safe, welcoming community to go through the course with.
I stand 100% behind the quality of the course. If you’re not satisfied, I offer a 100% money-back guarantee in the first fifteen days--for people who have shown that they have tried the course.
I ask that you at least try the material. Because the course comes with lifetime enrollment, not having time to do it is not a reason to get a refund. You must show me in the first 15 days that you have done the work of the first two lessons to get money back–watch the recordings and do one writing prompt per module and reflection (show me the reflection).
Signing up for this course is an investment in yourself, your wellbeing and your future. I want to encourage you to honor that commitment.
Healing is not only about recovering from being unwell.
It's about stepping into your greater intuition, fullness, pleasure, and purpose.
Tap into creative, emotional,
spiritual, and physical well-being
NOW CLOSED FOR ENROLLMENT
Total value:
$5,000+ but it's hard to put a price on this transformative practice! Only $797 or three payments of $277.
Sign up for the waitlist to be notified when the course opens again.
15 day money back guarantee for people who take action
If you are a teacher, doctor, therapist, healer, writer, check with your workplace and tax consultant. You might be able to get continuing education credits for the class. And for many, it will be tax deductible.
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