Friday, October 10, 2008 - General Sessions
7:45 - 8:30 Check-in and Continential Breakfast
8:30 - 9:15 Welcome by Executive Director John Evans, EdDKeynote: Wellness and Programmed Writing by Luciano L'Abate, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Georgia State University
Writing for Wellness: A Prescription for Healing - Julie Davey, MA
Author of the recent book, Writing for Wellness: A Prescription for Healing, will explain the unique, focused and directed writing techniques she has developed and uses in her Writing for Wellness classes at City of Hope National Cancer Center in California. Ms. Davey, a college writing professor and two-time cancer survivor will then lead conference attendees in a hands-on writing session to demonstrate how the process helps healing.
Writing with the Ink of Light on the Tablet of the Spirit: Coping with Chronic Pain & Other Health Challenges - Gail Radley MA
In this workshop, participants will experience writing exercises, prompts, & strategies designed to help writers move from despair to transcendence. As important as self-expression is, writing that only expresses angst may deepen a feeling of victimization. Meaning and control are key elements in moving away from a victim mentality, as is writing toward satisfying resolutions. Participants will gain a variety of ideas to help patients both express their feelings and gain insights through creative journaling. Handouts will include guided meditation and writing prompts.
12:45 -1:30 Lunch
Journey into the Secret Garden: Inner Travel for Creative Life - Debra Moffit
Joseph Campbell defines sacred space as a place "where you simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation." Writing is an act of the highest spiritual nature that grows out of this sacred space. Writing from sacred space means writing from the spiritual heart. This workshop will work with meditation, dreams, symbolic sight and spiritual values to dig to the heart of the sacred space within. Some of the brief sections could include: Meditation: Making Time to Listen to the Still, Small Voice Within; Values as Foundation of Your Writing; Clearing Out the Trash to Uncover the Heart or Ms. Dee Niles Cleans House::My House of Dreams: Coming Home to My Self; Sacred Space = Creative Space: Understanding The Creative Process.
3:15 - 5:45 Wit by Margaret Edson: A Viewing and Discussion by Noreen Lape, PhD
As prelude to Ms. Edson’s keynote address on Saturday, this special viewing of the HBO version of her Pulitzer prize winning play, Wit, will be introduced by Dr. Noreen Lape who will also facilitate a discussion of the film with the audience, emphasizing the illness narrative and the depiction of dying. The play, which is set in a hospital, focuses on an English Professor who is dying of cancer and details her personal journey as well as her interactions with various medical professionals as she lives out her final days. In addition, Dr. Nape will raise the issue of how viewing and writing about the film might be used to help those writing through illness.
Saturday, October 11, 2008 - General Sessions
8:00 - 8:30 Continential Breakfast
8:30 - 9:15 Welcome by Executive Director John Evans, EdD
Keynote: Why Write about Illness? by Margaret Edson, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of Wit
Writing Fiction to Save My Life: Thirteen years after her son's death, a novelist reflects on her own writing/publishing experience and demonstrates how fictional techniques can facilitate healing - Fran Dorf, MA, MSW (expected 2009)
Part One: Integrating theory, the work of other fiction writers and memoirists, her own bereavement, and writing/publishing experience, novelist Fran Dorf reflects on the process and consequences of turning her grief into Saving Elijah, an unconventional novel that is part ghost story, part thriller, and part family drama, which is itself an extended metaphor for the psychological process of grief. Fran's talk, based on her essay, "My Son's Name Was Michael—Not Elijah," will also focus on writing as "reinvestment," the choice to write a novel instead of a memoir, re-traumatization, Fran's decision to publicly reveal the inspiration for her third novel, and other issues that will be instructive to an interdisciplinary group.
Part Two: The "Write-To-Heal" Workshop, which Fran has conducted with bereaved parents, cancer patients, homeless and addiction support groups, uses fictional techniques to help people identify, claim, give voice to, and integrate the complex, difficult emotions surrounding grief, loss, and/or trauma. The workshop employs interrogative techniques, some arising out of themes developed in Saving Elijah, to deepen and clarify self knowledge, and exercises to stimulate the imagination and generate meaningful story, memoir, metaphor, and/or image. The workshop is tailored to the needs and interests of the participants, and is accessible to anyone.
A Spirit Laid Down in Chapters: Telling Your Story With Personal Essay - Emily Simerly, PhD
There is something about a person's spirit that wants expression, wants to tell the world its story. This workshop will offer readings and examples of personal essay that mark primary passages through life. A structure will be offered to generate six "starter" chapters of a personal narrative for you to use as a memoir in the continuing adaptation to life. Whether you are 90 or 20, your spirit and truth will find welcome and healing here.
11:15 - 12:15 Poetry Reading: Anne Webster and Jennifer Johnson
12:15 -1:00 Lunch
Writing and Poetry Therapy - Debbie McCulliss, RN
Poetry therapy is defined as personal growth through language, symbol and story. Poetry therapy can increase awareness, illuminate the mysterious, generate creativity and allow one's soul to speak. In this interactive workshop, participants will experience freedom of mind, imagination, language, and spirit through the use of poetry, writing and facilitated dialogue. Experience in writing or reading poetry not necessary.
4:15 - 4:45 Closing Session
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