"Jennifer's mentoring has taught me how to tap into layers of my creative self that I'd not known... to plow old fields and plant new seeds. By guiding me back to the earth, she has helped me discover my center... led me to the fertile ground wherefrom my best effort is nourished... helped me lift and carry the rocks in my path. When I first engaged TEALarbor stories' services, my intent was to nudge the flow of and improve my writing. I have learned to write the flow of and improve my life experience as well."

JH, Writing Mentoree and Story & Nature Guiding © Client, 2012

2019 Retreat!

Events

Advance registration is necessary for all workshops.
Does your group want to host a workshop on a particular topic? Workshops tailored to your specific needs are offered upon request.

Book Events (& News!)

Read the blurbs for Writing on the Landscape by clicking here.

Please stay tuned: We, Jennifer Wilhoit and Steve Jones, have sent off our co-authored book to the publisher. Our book is entitled Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature; it is filled with personal and professional experiences about how nature and life are intertwined. We expect to begin scheduling book events in late summer (2019).

Upcoming Workshops, Retreats, Courses, & Presentations

Click here to contact Jennifer for details about specific offerings

Ongoing Online Course - Growing Words of Compassion: Nature and Writing Practices to Love By
This on-demand course is available now (register and take the course whenever you want). This hands-on, multidisciplinary course will help students engage with their innate capacity for tender compassion. The curriculum is designed to meet each student where s/he currently is in the understanding and practice of compassion; deepening one’s expression of compassion is the primary focus. Click here for more information.

Coming this year! Online Courses - Writing on the Landscape: The Book Experienced and Instructors' Guide to "Writing on the Landscape"

June 20 Wellness: A Practical Road Map Keynote Speech for WA State Dept of Social & Health Svcs

June 22, 2019 Summer Solstice workshop

June 22, 2019 Global Earth Exchange
This is a free opportunity to make beauty in a wounded natural landscape. (Offered as an individual contribution to Radical Joy for Hard Times' Annual GEX event)

July 29 - August 2, 2019 Retreat!
Nature to Nurture: Creative Intensive
Bainbridge Island, WA
Join us if you have been craving restorative retreat time.
In natural settings with nurturing guidance, practical suggestions, and the intimacy of a group with shared interests … move forward with your creative ideas. Whether you’re a writer, artist, dreamer, or beauty-lover, this retreat will hold you as you ease into your fertile edges. Registration has been extended! Retreat! Explore! Create! Click here for details. Registration ends at 5 PM on June 14, 2019.

August 5 - September 1, 2019 Growing Words of Compassion: Nature and Writing Practices to Love By online course $199. Register here.

September 14 - 15, 2019 Books Meet Writing in the Natural World BARN bookmaking course (Jennifer J. Wilhoit with MJ Linford) $180. ($140. for BARN members)
In this two-session class you will learn the techniques and gain the skills necessary for making your own nature journal/sketchbook with a Coptic binding. Learn from a writer/spiritual ecologist and a master bookmaker. You will be guided through step-by-step instructions for compiling, completing, and decorating your handmade book. Coptic-bound journals allow for pages to be opened flat, making them ideal for outdoor use. You will also be guided through simple outdoor, creative, nature-based, and writing activities aimed to inspire content for your journal/sketchbook. Please bring a willingness to go outside (with weather-appropriate clothing, rain or shine) for brief periods of time to engage in some of these inspiring activities. Students will leave class with their Coptic-bound book and a start on filling the pages with nature-inspired writings and images.

September 18 - 21, 2019 Co-Panelist for session on Conflict Intervention Service at the Association for Conflict Resolution Annual Conference in Tucson, AZ.

September 22, 2019 Fall Equinox workshop
We will explore how the seasons shape and move us. Our time together will include sitting, writing, and walking solo on the land in order to experience more deeply our inner seasons.

December 14, 2019 Winter Solstice workshop
We will explore how the seasons shape and move us. Our time together will include sitting, writing, and walking solo on the land in order to experience more deeply our inner seasons.

Popular Workshops

Writing the Inner/Outer Landscape - Introduction
Explore what it means to write from the perspective of the inner and outer landscapes. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with three evocative types of written expression: writing for insight, writing as rite and writing for outcome. Whether a novice or experienced writer, you are invited to see what emerges when writing meets inspiration and nature.

Writing the Inner/Outer Landscape - Five Part Series, Includes:
Branching Out: Brainstorming
Stacking the Rocks: Getting Organized
Diving into the Stream: Actually Writing
The Brambled Trail: Roadblocks in Writing
Climbing the Mountain: Finding Stamina

Grief and Writing
Writing is a powerful way to work through the difficult emotions associated with loss or transition. Whether your life changes and sorrows are past or current, this workshop offers a path toward wholeness. You will have the opportunity to explore your individual expression of grief in a safe, confidential community. I will introduce a variety of simple nature-based, spiritual, and creative practices that can help you cultivate and sustain peaceful wellbeing even during hard times.

Writing for the Equinox/Solstice
We will explore how the seasons shape and move us. Our time together will include sitting, writing, and walking solo on the land in order to experience more deeply our inner seasons.

Titles of Past Workshops & Trainings

Altar-Making Workshop
Alternatives to Voice: Writing as a Means to Understanding
An Antidote to Writers’ Block
Compassionate Practices in Trying Circumstances
Crafting Your Writing Life
Developing a Body of Work: Beginners
Developing a Body of Work: Phase II
Exploring our Spiritual Roots: The Inner/Outer Landscape
Grief & Writing for the Holidays
Journeying Through Personal Responsibility Toward a Culture of Peace
Journeys into Landscapes: Travel Journaling
Meditation and Writing
Nature Journaling
Reaching Writing Goals
Season’s Greetings: Writing for the Holidays
Stories of Conflict: Calming Practices Rooted in Ecological Writing
Stories of Conflict: Writing for Insight as a Tool for Mediating
Sustainable Earth, Sustainable Lives: Writing that Sustains
Taking a Deeper Dive: Writing Stories that Transform
The Journey Through Grief
Transforming Conflict, Transforming Lives: Re-writing & Re-rooting Stories
Treephilia: Global Earth Exchange, in connection with Radical Joy for Hard Times
Volunteers Who Thrive: Writing & Nature Practices in Hospice Service
Writing as Life; Life as Writing
Writing as Rite
Writing for Non-Writers
Writing for Serenity
Writing for the Autumnal Equinox
Writing for the Holidays
Writing for the Spring Equinox
Writing for the Summer Solstice
Writing for the Winter Solstice
Writing, Meditation, and Creativity
Writing No Matter What: Getting Words on the Page
Written Story Workshop