Heartwork
At the top of each week, our unique Heartwork sessions are touchstones for connection and focus—opportunities to regroup, set intentions, and address the practical and process questions that are urgent to anyone in the weeds of book writing. Below are a few of the themes we’ve covered in our intimate group Heartwork sessions.
The Inner Critic
Effective Goal Setting
Toxic Comparison
Utilizing Scrivener (Without Falling into a Black Hole)
Research Best Practices
Desk Ergonomics / The Physicality of Writing
Setting Boundaries (with People & Devices!)
Negative Thought Loops, and How to Manage Them
Courting Joy
Literary Citizenship
Book Therapy
“I wish my therapist was a writer,” Anna said to Colleen one day—and soon, “Book Therapy” was born. Certain challenges and vulnerabilities are unique to the writer’s life: I fear my book needs a structural overhaul, or, This scene is driving me crazy, or, on days when the inner critic is operative, Am I even a real writer? Book Therapy is a one-on-one session with Anna or Colleen in which we address your manuscript struggles, puzzle through craft issues, strategize on publication, dig out from crises of confidence—you name it! We call it “book therapy” because it’s a capacious space in which feelings are welcome; we aim to tend and mend what ails your book, to pose questions that illuminate paths forward, and send you back to the manuscript renewed.
While these sessions—and writing, for that matter—may feel therapeutic, they are not a substitute for actual therapy. Anna and Colleen are not licensed health care providers, but rather writers with expertise in facilitating, coaching, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral techniques.