Julie Mariouw leads writing workshops designed to help writers bypass their inner critics; go directly to images, feelings, & memories; and tap into the healing power of writing. Julie creates writing prompts using metaphor, the senses, polarity, the body, and the power of nature, to expand writers' imaginations & increase their creativity. As an Amherst Writers & Artists Workshop Leader and an ANFT-certified Forest Therapy Guide, Julie weaves together craft, community, and nature-based practice to support healing for body, mind, and spirit.

Julie believes that:

All people are creative geniuses, if given the right support.
Writing belongs to all people, & each writer has a unique voice.
Writing in this way reconnects writers with their bodies & promotes physical healing.
Writing in this way increases sense memory & recall of prior experience.
Writing in this way expands the imagination & produces work that may not have been possible alone.
Teaching of craft can be done without damage to the original voice/self-esteem of the writer.
A writer does not have to become personally vulnerable in order to write from the deepest places.

The Writing:

5 - 8 people in Online Workshops using Zoom.
5 - 8 people in In-Person Workshops--On-Site in Chelsea, MI.
Drop-In Writing sessions Online using Zoom.
Individual sessions--Online & On-Site in Chelsea.
NEW - Guided Forest Therapy walks in Chelsea.
Attention to craft is taken seriously, and offered through 1 - 20 minute writing exercises.
Writers, if they wish, read their work aloud.
Comment only on what is strong and successful in the work.
All writing treated as fiction.
Writing that happens in these workshops is not discussed outside of these workshops.
Workshop leader writes with everyone else, establishing equality of risk and mutual trust.