CREATIVE WRITING CONSULTATION

Jennifer Johnson offers creative writing workshops and private consultation for beginners to experienced writers working within all genres. Creative writing prompts are utilized to assist students in getting started on a writing project, and then guidance and instruction are provided to encourage students toward achieving their writing goals, whether they are writing for personal fulfillment or writing for publication. Her work with creative writing clients is about helping writers to discover their authentic voice, write with greater ease and enjoyment, and learn to become skilled at editing their own work.

Jennifer provides writing coaching to assist writers with developing personal habits such as increasing capacity to write deeply, write imaginatively, and write more frequently. She assists writers in developing traits such as confidence, presence, discipline, self-trust, centeredness, and resiliency that encourage a writer's success. Jennifer assists clients who are struggling with writer's block or procrastination and assists them in learning new strategies to overcome these barriers and achieve their writing goals.

Jennifer has undertaken extensive study in the fields of Therapeutic Writing and Narrative Medicine. She facilitates creative writing groups as reflective practice for health care and mental health care professionals. Health care and mental health care professionals are by nature story listeners. We bear witness to a great deal of suffering, and at times that suffering seems inconsolable. The poet Paul Celan notes, "No one bears witness for the witness." In slowing down our listening through reflective writing practice, we hear others' and our own stories more deeply, and we come to know and understand our selves and others more fully. Practiced individually, reflective writing practice allows us to bear witness to our own witnessing. Practiced in a group setting, we are able to bear witness to the witnessing of others.

Jennifer also facilitates creative writing groups for clients or patients within healthcare or mental health settings to assist them with writing illness narratives, writing life stories for self-healing or to leave as legacy for family members, reminiscence narratives, and end of life narratives.

Jennifer is available to provide creative writing consultation, writing workshops, and writing coaching locally and by email and phone for long-distance clients. She is available for travel to offer workshops and presentations related to creative writing.