WRITE
ATTEND
READ
SUPPORT
Meet THe Team
In this four-hour workshop, Joe and Kenneth will offer kind attention and open space for your passions and your writing. We’ll begin by emphasizing some specific effects of trauma—protections, exits, divides—and offer opportunities to write from these experiences. Our interest is in identity, and how it is shaped by, and changed through, trauma.
Our touchpoints are these: Innocence. Abandonment. Control. Defeat. Love.
In our session, we will offer prompts for each. These phases are rarely linear. They may be dramatic or gradual. They may be repeated, but writing can help us move into and through them. Importantly, a better understanding, and acceptance, of these phases can open your writing to becoming more honest and authentic.
Trauma Phases:
• Innocence—Womb, birth, infancy, early childhood (for some this time may be very brief or fleeting); a time of magic, of bliss, of receiving, feeling safe, connected, in-the-body.
• Abandonment—Experiences of being rejected, ignored, deprived, forgotten, unloved, unprotected, unseen, not valued.
• Control—In order to survive, avoid pain and fear, or adapt to harsh or dangerous circumstances, we attempt to control ourselves and our environment through denial, dissociation, fantasy, fragmentation, escape, addiction, physical “armoring” or shut-down, pleasing or over-performing.
• Defeat—When our efforts to control fail, we experience emotional distress, confusion, collapse, chaos, losses, disruptions in work and relationships, near-death. We are unable to continue our former ways of coping and relating.
• Love—As we face our past, seek support, move beyond judgment and find forgiveness, accept our emotions and needs, and look deeply into ourselves and into reality itself, we may discover interconnectedness, belonging, ecstatic knowing, radical freedom. The way we see ourselves and the world is transformed.
• In-Class Writing Lift: Heavy
• Homework: None
• Workshopping Drafts: None
Joseph Hardy, a reformed human resource consultant, lives with his wife Judi and dog Charley Girl, in Nashville, Tennessee. Since retiring, his poetry has been published in more than sixty journals, including: Appalachian Review, Cold Mountain Review, Inlandia, Plainsongs, and Poet Lore. He is the author of two books of poetry, The Only Light Coming In and Becoming Sky, through Bambaz Press Los Angeles, and a picture book, At the Reading of the Will—And a Boy’s Life Thereafter, at IngramSpark.
Kenneth Robinson is a poet and musician, and a psychotherapist in private practice for more than 30 years. His practice brings together art, psychology, and spirituality as a means to facilitate emotional integration and guide others beyond the shattering consequences of trauma to a sense of wholeness and connection. Kenneth received a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1977, and a Master’s in Theological Studies from the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University in 2007. He is a founding member of a musical group that leads kirtan, a form of meditation and worship that allows participants to move to open-hearted awareness and self-expression through sound. He has performed his poetry (individually, and in collaboration with Ana Maria Hernando) in Denver, Kansas City, Vancouver, and in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. His book of poetry, The Year of Lovemaking and Crying, was released in 1999.
"Kenneth and Joe were wonderful coaches and instructors. I felt like they truly crafted a safe space for each of us to access the stories living within us. This was hands-down my favorite class I've taken at The Porch and would love to work with them again."
"The safe space Kenneth and Joe created was such a wonderful way to connect with a group of diverse individuals that were all there to learn and grow. I felt the prompts and guidance they offered in the Trauma writing class helped me to identify new feelings and perspective that I hadn’t discovered yet. This class was 10/10 one of the best self care investments I’ve made. I would highly recommend the class to anyone I know."
"Joe and Kenneth were friendly, knowledgeable, and clearly passionate about leveraging writing as a way to process trauma. This class really helped me come out of my writers block and use writing as a tool to process complex feelings."
