As part of our reach to help bring people healing & growth,
our ATELES Writing Workshops give participants the opportunity to
process & explore in a safe, empowered, & creative way.
For a full list of our workshops & offerings, visit ateleswritingworkshop.com
Light, truth, epiphany, & insight are only found by
imperfect people through an imperfect process.
In ancient Greek, the word ATELES means “imperfect.”
At The Forward Foundation, we view imperfection as an important part of the human condition & see it as an avenue for strength to shine through as we lean into a process of growth. That’s why we’ve named our workshops ATELES. Through the creative endeavor of writing, we come to the process as imperfect people; and in that creative process, we can be delighted to find gems of light, truth, epiphany, insight, joy, & even healing.
Your experiences are personal stories.
Your stories have meaning.
Your words matter.
Whether you’re interested in writing something specific, looking to journal as a therapeutic practice, wanting to outline some goals or pursue a dream, motivated to develop your craft, up for playing some fun word games, focusing in on a specific project, or simply ready to process authentically through a pen & some paper, we invite you to join one of our online or in-person writing workshops.
The ATELES Writing Workshop gives you room to catch new inspiration.
Join our next Online Writing Workshop: Click Here
Join our bi-monthly Momentum Writing Group: Info Here
Explore & find out more at ateleswritingworkshop.com
Online & in-person workshops include:
Use words to play with mood, tone, pace, style, imagery, metaphor, emotion, & more.
Therapeutic Write
Process the world around you & your experience in it, question your fears & holdbacks, explore your emotions, tell some of your story, challenge a narrative, rewrite the past, lean into self-improvement, & claim goals for your life.
Journaling For Purpose
Use prompts to process something, make meaningful lists, record memories, or realize goals that excite you going forward.
Journaling to Capture the Unseen
Meditate on spiritual concepts in a peaceful & supportive setting that incorporates silence & the outdoors.
Write a Chapter
Start & finish a chapter about anything you want in one complete session.
Life Stories/Memoir
Capture your lived experience through essays, short stories, poems, or novel-form chapters & pay homage to the past, give concrete form to memories, bring meaning to the present, & create an inspiring historical record for future generations.
Momentum Writing Group
Start or continue any writing project and develop it through recurring twice monthly group workshops.
Story Challenge
Stretch your creativity through assigned genre & character elements in timed sessions & create a mini masterpiece.
For information, email ateles@forwardcce.com or visit ateleswritingworkshop.com
Our guided writing activities, prompts, & challenges will help you:
- Creatively express yourself in a variety of ways
- Try new writing styles, voices, themes, characters, & genres
- Explore problems, situations, relationships, & environments
- Name/define your feelings, regrets, reactions, goals, & hopes
- Tear down your defense mechanisms (like co-dependency, anger, conflict-avoidance, & more)
- Take the space that’s needed to affirm your experiences & realize more compassion & empathy for yourself & others
- Examine your truth
- More freely view your experiences from different angles
- Find a connection between your past, present, & future choices
- Look at your experiences more objectively
- Capture the human condition
- Better understand how you experience life
- Identify your values & skills
- Navigate your present & future
- See positive elements you hadn’t seen before
- Learn more about your ability to live out your values so you can effectively cope with current & future problems
- Transform experiences from your past & present, enabling them to serve you rather than hurt you
Workshop themes vary by design, and cover various topics like:
- Who, What, When, Where, WhyWhyWhy, & How
- Journaling
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Life Story
- Letter to Yourself, Someone Else, or Something
- Rewriting the Past
- Rewriting the Ending
- Narration
- Pace
- The Circle of Life & Death in Writing
- Action: the What Happens Next?
- Processing the Past, Present, & Future
- Confronting Fear
- Setting Goals
- Naming Dreams
- Senses & Emotions
- Silence & Noise
- Voice
- Objects
- Character Development
- Drafts & Rewriting
- & More!
Studies have shown that expressing yourself creatively can:
- Be fun!
- Alleviate boredom
- Improve your mood
- Boost your self-esteem
- Reduce anxiety, depression, & stress
- Help you process struggles, hardships, or trauma
- Improve your cognitive function – keep your mind sharp
- Improve your ability to focus
- Improve your social life & link you to others
- Alleviate stress & anxiety
- Open your mind
- View & solve problems more innovatively
- Teach you to approach challenges with persistence & innovation
- Help you escape reality in a healthy way
- Provide an avenue for experimentation
- Give you access to a flow mindset (lose specific awareness of time in a happy/relaxed/natural way)
- Lead to feelings of satisfaction & accomplishment
- Encourage you to be a lifelong learner
- Give you a sense of purpose
- Give you access to childlike freedom
- Lengthen your lifespan
- & more!
Writing has a healing effect & has proven effective for different conditions, including:
- Post-traumatic stress
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Grief & loss
- Chronic illness
- Substance abuse
- Eating disorders
- Relationship issues
- Low self-esteem
(Farooqui, 2016)
Whether you’re a seasoned writer, an occasional journaler, or even frustrated by words, you will leave your workshop session with new insights & new momentum!
For Frequently Asked Questions: Click Here
Sign Up Now!
Join our next Online Writing Workshop: Click Here
Join our bi-monthly Momentum Writing Group: Info Here
Additional in-person and online workshops to be announced soon!
Find out more at ateleswritingworkshop.com
“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I write and I understand.”
-Chinese Proverb