Teaching & Retreats
Writing to Feed the Soul
Carolyn has taught ongoing writing groups, residential retreats and writing intensives called Writing to Feed the Soul since September 1997. The focus of her work is the generation of new writing drawn from deep within the soul and psyche.
Her teaching themes include an imaginative mix of poetry and prose, evoking dreams, the elements, ancestors, the earth and nature, animals, spirit guides, sacred geometry, tarot, qabbalah, and myth – all with the intention to allow archetypal, mythic and shamanic themes to provide seed and sacred ground for new and enlivened writing. Writers often find that a new voice emerges, and that their work goes deeper, exploring vital themes and profound hidden stories.
Carolyn brings people together in order to write together in a unique atmosphere of deep listening, profound witness and feedback, with an eye to the continued unfolding of the writer and the truest spirit of her work.
Ongoing Writing Groups
Bi-Monthly Groups The bi-monthly writing groups meet twice a month on the first two weeks of the month. Three different groups meet on Tuesdays afternoons, Wednesday evenings, or Thursday afternoons. During these groups, there is time for members to bring in writing for witness and feedback. In addition, Carolyn introduces a new writing theme each meeting, and the members write, and then read together in a vibrant and safe environment.
During teaching weeks, three writing groups meet regularly:
Tuesday, 2-5:30 pm
Wednesday, 6-9:30 pm
Thursday, 2-5:30 pm
Monthly Group The monthly group meets the second Saturday of the month. Time is 10-2:30 pm. This monthly writing group meets for a longer time, and is akin to a regular mini-rereat.
Location All groups meet in the Live Oak area of Santa Cruz.
Openings There are currently openings in the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon groups. The other groups are full, but please contact Carolyn if you are interested in these groups to add your name to the short waiting list.
Cost Cost for the Bi-Monthly Groups is $240 per three-month session (or $80 monthly payment). Cost for the Monthly Group is $180 per three-month session.
For more information or to sign up, please email carolynflynn@cruzio.com.
Individual Conferences
Carolyn offers a limited number of individual conferences with writers and those seeking to pursue questions of life and spirit. She works directly with writing and editing, as well as with dreams, tarot, art, and the ancestors—always seeking to name and acknowledge the spirits who are feeding our lives and making requests of us. Please contact her at carolynflynn@cruzio.com if you would like to inquire about this further.
Writing Intensives and Retreats
Carolyn offers one-day writing intensives periodically throughout the year, usually in the Santa Cruz Mountains. These full-day retreats allow the writer to leave ordinary life for a time and enter the soul of nature and their work. Most intensives include a period of silence, spirit work, writing and witness.
Carolyn also teaches residential weekend and week-long writing retreats, in the Santa Cruz Mountains and in Ireland. (Please see Ireland link for more information about retreats in Ireland.) These retreats allow an extensive time for the writer to sink deeply into her work, and to allow new voices to emerge and take hold.
This year she may periodically offer one-day and/or residential writing retreats. For dates, please sign up for her mailing list or check back here.