Writing is an arm, a hand to touch reality. It was like trying to scratch an itch I couldn’t reach. But it wasn’t an itch, it was a whole world.Gwen Ackerman
Course Date:
10/16/2025 to 12/4/2025
Thursday evenings 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Online course, delivered online via ZOOM.
Transformative Expressive Writing | 8 sessions online (live) | Gwen Ackerman
Eight sessions designed to introduce transformative expressive writing, led by certified transformative writer facilitator, author and retired senior journalist Gwen Ackerman
The workshop is designed to introduce transformative expressive writing as a practical tool for coping in times of high anxiety. The sessions will guide you in using writing as a way to navigate the stress and trauma of current times of Middle East conflict and heightened anti-Semitism. The course will offer techniques to process experiences, tap into resilience and maintain perspective amidst tension and uncertainty.
Course structure – eight "online" sessions (evening course) Israel Time
part one: In each session, we will read, learn about, and watch seminal love scenes from literature, television, and film, and derive practical tools for writing from them. We will experience a writing exercise and receive professional feedback on the texts we write. The actual writing takes place during the session itself, and also in homework exercises between sessions.
part two: It will be dedicated to personal feedback on the writers' drafts.
The learning and feedback method: During the course, students will receive writing assignments for the next session. Those who do not have time to read in class will receive feedback on their text via email.
Safe space above all: In order to create an intimate and safe space for you, we will ask all workshop participants to participate with an open camera and in a quiet and intimate space. The recorded part of the meetings is the lecture only. The part where you read, participate and share – will not be recorded. The work in this workshop is personal with a group echo. There is no obligation to share or participate during the meeting. We look forward to meeting you between the words!
**The number of participants is limited to 20 people**
Course Date: 10/16/2025 to 12/4/2025 | Thursdays 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Course Price: 2,500 NIS Pre-sale price 2,100 NIS! (Can be spread into installments)
Transformative Expressive Writing
Syllabus
This session will be dedicated to the setting of rules to create a safe place for all while getting acquainted with one another while beginning to learn the first techniques of transformative writing. We will start with free writes that react to readings that include how and why the technique works and the poet Rumi and Jared Anderson.
Write to relax body and mind. We will explore how nature can improve our mood, lower our anxiety, and improve our cognition through writings, and readings, both research findings, pictures, and poems such as Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver.
Tap into your strengths to find elevated vitality and motivation, a greater sense of direction and increased self-confidence. This session will be focused on bolstering our view of ourselves as strong, resilient and coping. It will include research and poetry readings as well as the use of photographs and pictures.
Explore the importance of creating a close community to share anxieties. We will explore how significant community has been in our lives, and how it has felt to lose it during times such as Covid and also during the war, when it feels hard to make plans to leave your home. Again, readings will include Israeli and international authors and poets as well as research.
Discover and explore self-compassion. We must never forget that, no matter what life throws at us, we must take care of ourselves first to ensure we have the strength to deal with what comes and help others. We will explore the writings of Kristen Neff and Buddhist monks as well as read poems from writers including Maya Angelou and James Crew.
“Look how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness” Anne Frank
Find hope amid unbearable darkness. How do we find hope, where does it hide? We will discover our own path to our inner hopes through reading writing by Emily Dickinson and Naomi Shihab Nye among others, drawing, and listening to researchers such as Brene Brown.
Gratitude supports and expands resilience. In these two hours, we will focus on gratitude through video clips including those of Brene Brown, imagery, and music. Poetry will include that of Thich Nhat Hanh. Finding the small things we can be grateful for in the midst of chaos is a wonderful tool of resilience.
Writing our way into the meaning of our life creates essential motivation for survival. Participants will be encouraged to bring in objects that help them cope to share and use in writing exercises. We will explore the writing of Viktor Frankl and how it may have an influence on us today. Look at techniques of self-reflection and discover the ones that you feel will help you cope.
