After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story
The Seed and the Spice, Part 1 & 2
Journal to the Self®
Writing and Wellness Connections Conference

Wednesdays, May 26-June 30, 4 to 5:30 p.m.  (Will be offered again in Fall 2010)
HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Southern Arizona
1921 W. Hospital Drive, Tucson, Arizona

This six-week journaling workshop is tightly focused on exploring elements of life after brain injury, using After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story. Each 90-minute session includes two or three opportunities for writing and occasional drawing. Many of the writing exercises begin with a “prompt,” which is a phrase or sentence used to get the writing started. After writing, participants may voluntarily share what they have written with the group.

People with brain injury often become frustrated and depressed as they attempt to cope with the realities of their altered lives. They can also isolate themselves, feeling unsure about navigating and negotiating a world they may no longer recognize as familiar. Journaling has long been known to offer therapeutic benefits, and people with brain injury can benefit from it, too, by using directed prompts and exercises. In this way, they can write their stories for themselves, as in traditional journaling, and they may choose to share those stories with others to increase understanding and build connections. If they journal in a group with a facilitator, they find they are not alone but in the company of others who understand as no one else can.

Copies of After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story are provided. Participants must complete an application before attending, and the workshop is free to qualified applicants. Contact Barbara Stahura at barbara@barbarastahura.com or 520-575-9650 for more information. Top

Journaling: The Seed and the Spice, Part 1 (August 21)
Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you can use your personal journal to enhance, enliven, and empower your writing. Learn proven journaling techniques to spice up your stories with details gleaned from real life and flesh-out intriguing characters (true or imagined), even as you improve your own well-being.

Expressive writing, such as personal journaling, has been shown in many studies to encourage deeper insight; offer relief from difficult memories; and enhance physical, emotional, and mental well-being. In addition, many writers have used various kinds of journals as the seed-bed for published works. In this three-hour workshop, you will learn five easy yet powerful techniques that will benefit you in private journaling as well as writing meant for publication. Come prepared to write.

Journaling: The Seed and the Spice, Part 2 (September 18)
Build on what you learned in Part 1, or take this as a stand-alone workshop. Learn five additional journaling techniques to enhance, enliven, and empower your fiction or nonfiction writing. Come prepared to write.

If you attended Part 1, I encourage to bring some of the exercises you wrote afterward and share them with the group.

Fee: $30 per session
Location: The Arizona Room, Residence Inn, 6477 East Speedway, Tucson
Information: http://www.stonethread.com/events.html or barbara@barbarastahura.com
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