storyteller within
Journey into Sacred Expression
Women's Retreats
We are meant to gather...
Creative Writing For
Your Personal Stories
Women's Circle Live Writing Retreat
Intimate Creative Online Offering!
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Join the magical intimacy of a women's circle. (Only 12 participants!)
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Gather for live writing and sharing twice weekly for six weeks.
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Open up more creative paths into writing your personal stories.
"Creative Writing For Your Personal Stories"
Women's Circle Writing Retreat Online
with Aimee Hansen
start date: October 18th, 2020
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Six Weeks Course: October 18th - November 29th, 2020 ​
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12 three-hour Live Writing Circles (twice weekly, via Zoom)
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Opening and Closing Live Circles
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Active Community Group for Interaction & Sharing (via Facebook)
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Several creative catalysts to inspire your imagination and words
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Daily 'creative attention' practice
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*Bonus* - Discount Access to the weekly "XXXX" circle
This live writing circle is for you if:
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you crave the time and space to write but can't seem to make it happen - we will do it together, live!
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you want to experience the magic of a retreat circle of women who will together open and express.
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you feel stuck or blocked with writing, or don't know how to begin.
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you just seek more creative inspiration in writing about your own life experiences.
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you yearn to write, you journal as part of your own practice, or you are working on a longer project.
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ALL experience levels are welcome!
"For thousands of years, in tribes and villages around the world, women have come together in circles to share, to teach, to listen, to learn. The pulse of these women still beats within us. Their wisdom flows through time, whispering to us the song of female connection and beauty. We only need to stop long enough and put our ear to our heart to hear the call."
- Heather Ash Amara
This writing circle will invite you to:
- Explore juicy creative themes and approaches for writing into life experiences.
- Investigate different angles of perception to expand possibility.
- Play freely with your creativity (vs focusing on project & productivity).
- Fire up the muse through live prompts, override the inner critic procrastinator.
- Get used to sharing your raw, initial expression and hold witness for others.
- Be seen and heard and held in safe space with a group of women.
- Cultivate your writing channel and attune your attention to curiosity daily.
- Expand your creative imagination and flow with your writing.
- Share in rich interaction in the live sessions and small community group.
This 'course' will not offer:
- Technical, craft-based or critical review of your writing.
- Advice on writing project management, editing, structure or completion.
- Lots of takeaway material to read for self-study.
- Direct workshopping of previously written material, though you may find new ways to write it.
A women's circle to build connection and creativity.
Across many circles, Storyteller Within has cultivated a gathering space for women for over five years - to share their experiences, expand their perspectives, reconnect with their inner voices, face their fears, hone their intuition, voice their raw words and move more boldly into their own sacred expression - while holding witness and space for each other to do the same.
In this online offering, the alchemical magic of the sacred circle space and open sharing is still at the heart of what we will co-create together. This is not an online creative course that you will follow along with anonymously, but a space for live connection and live vulnerability with a focus on exploring and writing our stories in many creative ways.
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Women's Circle = Connection
The live circle is designed to hold the nurturing dynamic of the women's circle. We will get to know more than each other's names and faces. Each participant will be seen and heard and have the open invitation to share at every group session.
This is an intimate experience with a maximum of 12 participants who will delve into writing moments and stories and insights from our own lives. We are probably going to laugh and cry a lot.
Dedicated Time & Space For Creativity
Have you ever signed up for a "course" that entailed self-study and homework, and found you got behind one week, then lost pace with the group and... just let it all go? Not this time.
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Like a retreat, all you need to do each session is to show up, and as you are, for live participation in the writing circle. No pre-work. No powerpoint slides. No pre-recorded videos. No worksheets.
Just show up and participate in the circles. You will receive creative guidance, and together we will get quiet and write to prompts in "live time" (eg. 10-20 minutes) - exploring various themes and creative approaches for personal stories or insights.
Each session will offer fresh angles and inspiration and you will walk away with new writing to further develop or just enjoy.
Sometimes, carving out time for writing is the hardest part about writing - we will do it together and live. Even if you miss a session, you cannot "get behind." Simply show up again. Be inspired and write and share with the group.
To support staying in the creative zone, there will be a tiny recommended daily practice (ten minutes) and extra prompts for those who wish to do even more writing alone. The live sessions will be recorded and shared in the Facebook group, too. Even if you miss a circle, you can still share your writing (written or video) with our group.
Creative Play & Inspiration
There are thousands of ways to tell our stories beyond the who-what-when-where-why-how of linear events. We will explore dozens of alternative doors into writing our lived experience across our six weeks that will catalyze your creative expansion.​
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You will write from your body. You will write from your senses. You will find new metaphors. You will write from the smallest details and from a split second of a decision. You will play with perspectives. You will be inspired by unorthodox approaches. You will uncover parts of the stories you hold back. You might play with time. You will attune to the tangible beauty of ordinary moments.
We will naturally expand the way we see ourselves and our lives as we play with writing, and we will encounter even more nuance and richness in the way we think about our stories.
Ultimately, this is a personal journey that isn't just about writing. We cannot open up how we write without opening up how we experience ourselves and our lives. This is a creative circle, but it will organically also expand your self-awareness and self-expression.
Join this live writing women's circle to:
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Gather with a powerful circle of women in rawness, vulnerability and expression.
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Immerse in an intimate journey with a maximum of 13 women, including the facilitator.
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Honor and be witnessed for your embodied and lived experience.
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Break from your routine to feed and nurture your creative self.
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Explore creative flexibility and play in writing stories from your life.
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Overcome obstacles to live writing or sharing your raw 'first draft' words.
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Embrace new ways of thinking about, sharing and perceiving your experiences.
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Revive your creative juices and your creative expression.
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Play with writing as a way of reliving experience to deepen and integrate as a human being.
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Discover the unique aspects of voice that immerse from you.
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Catalyze your own writing practice and expand your creative toolbox.
"For thousands of years, in tribes and villages around the world, women have come together in circles to share, to teach, to listen, to learn. The pulse of these women still beats within us. Their wisdom flows through time, whispering to us the song of female connection and beauty. We only need to stop long enough and put our ear to our heart to hear the call."
- Heather Ash Amara
Meet Aimee Hansen.
Aimee Hansen is the Creator of Storyteller Within women's retreats, recommended by Lonely Planet and consistently included among 'Incredible Writing Retreats to Attend' by The Write Life.
Aimee stumbled into soul work when she was compelled to offer women's circle retreats in early 2015. This retreats offer an embodied experience with women where the writing is alive and immediate, becomes threaded between us, and where we together brave the conversations with self that we secretly ache to have.
To date, she has facilitated across 24 live events and online and has the experience of over 800 live hours in reconnecting women with their voices and reclaiming their expression. This transformational gathering has led many women to change their lives to be more fully who they are.
In addition to facilitating, Aimee works as a freelance article writer and is currently a poetry collection. This offering embraces the spontaneity which she enjoys with the muse, after recalibrating her own writing relationship to *joy*. You can check out some of her words, her musings about the circle and her reviews.
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Aimee views her role in the circle as communal, reflective and catalytic. Her desire is for you to feel connected, open, seen, heard, expressive and expansive. It's your voice that this space is created for. Her role is to inspire you into allowing and sharing more of it.
