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. 

Upcoming Workshops, Retreats, Courses, & Presentations 

Click here to contact Jennifer for details about specific offerings.

July 9 - August 5, 2017 (online; complete at your own pace week by week) Charter for Compassion Education Institute Course - Growing Words of Compassion: Nature and Writing Practices to Love By Registration is now open!
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. The four areas we will cover include: writing for compassion; nature for compassion; gratitude’s role in compassion; and the creation of a symbolic toolbox of images, words, and objects as touchstones of compassion practice. Students will be asked to delve deeply into their individual process and ways of seeing themselves. They will also be guided to explore their relationship to difference, “the perceived other,” and how to offer compassion in difficult situations. Using a variety of creative, educational, and ecological tools, participants will deepen their relationship to their own heart of compassion. There is a strong emphasis on writing as well as exercises/activities to be completed out in nature. Students will also explore online resources, read articles, create symbols for compassionate action, and have a chance to reflect on their process and the resources provided. Assignments are designed to guide students toward an embodied practice of compassion that deepens in their lives long after the course has concluded. Click here to register.

July 22, 2017 Nature Journaling Workshop
Explore ways to capture on paper your experiences out in natural landscapes. Learn simple writing, creative, and photographic techniques.

August 26, 2017 Meditation and Writing
Experience the dynamic potential that quiet reflection and writing hold for each other.

More Online Courses: Writing the Inner/Outer Landscape - and others - coming in the fall...

September 16, 2017 Save the date for a special event with a dear collaborator...details coming soon

September 23, 2017 Writing for the Autumnal Equinox 
Learn how to harvest ideas for writing, for project completion, and for a sustainable writing practice.

Thursdays in October 2017 Developing a Body of Work: Beginners
Learn and practice the basics of putting together a plan for writing projects.

Tuesdays in November 2017 Developing a Body of Work: Phase II
Learn and practice various styles to begin developing a body of written work.

November 11, 2017 Writing for the Holidays 
Explore writing strategies that help you survive the physical and emotional bustle of the holiday season.

December 9, 2017 Grief and Writing Through the Holidays
Find comfort in writing and simple ways to cope as you navigate a holiday season without a loved one.

Spring 2018 RETREAT: Storying through the Inner/Outer Landscapes: Writing & Ecology for Healing
Using nature-based, creative experiences, we can learn how the outer landscape informs, mirrors, & affirms our inner landscape. We will offer an opportunity for retreat participants to explore their life story in a nurturing, spacious setting. We will also guide participants through practices they can use to deepen their stories even after returning home. This three-day experiential retreat will focus on participants' relationship to their life stories; transition, flow, & transformative potential of their stories, & ways to more compellingly “live into” their stories. This retreat would especially serve those who: are seeking a deeper expression of their gifts, are in a life transition, or have suffered loss & want to move forward. Facilitators: Burt Kempner and Jennifer Wilhoit

...and so much more on the way: workshops, presentations, and a few surprises...

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
An Antidote to Writers’ Block
Compassionate Practices in Trying Circumstances
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
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
Transforming Conflict, Transforming Lives: Re-writing & Re-rooting Stories
Treephilia: Global Earth Exchange, in connection with Radical Joy for Hard Times
Writing as Life; Life as Writing
Writing as Rite
Writing for Non-Writers
Writing for Serenity
Writing for the Autumnal Equinox
Writing for the Spring Equinox
Writing for the Summer Solstice
Writing for the Winter Solstice
Writing, Meditation, and Creativity