Write your memoir while healing your past at the same time →
INTRODUCING
Write Your Life Stories, Heal Your Past
A self-paced on-demand memoir-writing course to help you heal while writing your difficult stories – so you can craft a compelling memoir without getting overwhelmed.
“This is the best, most brilliantly facilitated writing course I’ve experienced.
I’ve been on a long healing journey and have only recently begun learning the connection to listening to my body in the process.
I spent hours delving into this work and absolutely loved it.
I feel like you and your training combine everything that resonates with my soul – the healing work, the grounding and body awareness, the creative process and my heart’s calling to write my story.”
Shannon F.
Former Educator
Writing a memoir, telling your story, and healing should always go together.
Writing your life stories is an inherently healing process but it can get lonely and overwhelming without guidance – especially when writing about the difficult or traumatic experiences in your past.
This course provides tools, guidance and techniques on how to write a compelling stories about personal experiences and how to spot patterns and themes in your life.
You’ll learn about how the nervous system is connected to writer’s block and trauma, and how to use gentle healing techniques as you write your stories.
You’ll create a life story timeline,explore options for structuring your stories, so you feel equipped to not only write your stories for healing, but share them too.
Learn how to write your life stories while healing from difficult experiences.
Using trauma-informed body-based writing techniques.
Because sharing your stories shouldn’t retraumatize you.
Maybe you’ve tried to write your story in the past but you got overwhelmed by emotions orsomatic (body) responses, and had to stop.
Or you had to stop writing in order to recover from the process and the difficult memories it brought up.
In this course you’ll learn how to catch yourself when you’re getting overwhelmed by difficult memories, then write through those stories without running away from them or freezing up.
You’ll heal as you write, and transform yourself in the process.
Hi! I’m your teacher, Janelle Hardy.
I’m a transformational memoir-writing teacher and somatic (body) healing therapist.
I know a thing or two about how healing and writing go hand in hand.
I’ve been writing since I was a child, and have published my writing in newspapers, magazines and an anthology of single mothers. I’m a lover of stories, a lifelong apprentice to the art of storytelling, both written and oral, in both new and ancient tales.
I’ve also been on the healing path since my early 20s, and I’m trained in the skills needed to gently and effectively support myself and my students in trauma-healing from a gentle, body-based, nervous-system oriented perspective.
I created this memoir-writing course to help future memoir writers like you get past the barriers that have stopped you from telling your story.
Write Your Life Stories, Heal Yourself
In this self-paced course, you’ll be guided through the process of writing and healing.
You’ll organise your many and varied life experiences onto a timeline, then narrow those options down to an intriguing theme or two. Then you’ll write!
You’ll explore different options for telling your stories and choose between a three-act or a four-act structure to write your first (of many) personal stories.
You’ll learn how to move through common challenges like creative resistance, writer’s block, overwhelm, procrastination and self-doubt.
You’ll use body-based nervous system healing techniques to shift challenges related to writing difficult life stories – including traumatic experiences.
Here’s what you get for just £29:
Lifetime access (in a self-paced video and written format)
So you can go through at your own pace and revisit the lessons as many times as you need
Guided process from start to finish
Say goodbye to feeling like you’re writing your life stories all alone
Writing prompts to get you started
So you can get writing, without overthinking or procrastinating
Somatic (body) techniques for healing
To help you navigate your nervous system and write your stories without overwhelm or shutdown
Exercises to clear writers block and keep momentum
To help you move through resistance without weeks or months of feeling stuck
Guidance for those concerned about writing about sad or traumatic events or other people
So you can stop worrying and self-censoring, and write your stories down
Start writing your stories while healing in the process with the Write Your Life Stories, Heal Your Past self-paced course today.
You have an interesting story to tell.
Even if you worry that your writing is bad or your stories are boring.
The cure for ‘bad’ writing is practice and this course will help you write more without letting perfectionism stop you.
As you commit to your writing with the guidance to help you move past resistance and writer’s block, you’ll become a better storyteller. And then you’ll discover this truth:
There is no such thing as a person with a boring life story.
It’s easy to look at the wildly dramatic life experiences that others share in their memoir and stories, and feel like you can’t measure up. But if your life stories are more internal, quieter, it doesn’t mean they’re boring.
It’s all about your storytelling skills.
The Write Your Life Stories, Heal Your Past course will help you develop your storytelling skills through a 3-act (or 4-act) story structure while at the same time prioritizing your healing.
There is plenty of the support and guidance you need, with trauma-informed, body-based healing techniques to help you tend to the emotions that come up as you write about your more difficult moments.
“Janelle is a gifted teacher
with genius instincts on juxtaposing sources and materials to spark genuine creativity. Her body focus set light to what is now an essential part of my own creative life.”
Molly Pennington
Writer, Astrologer, Phd
baroquemoonastrology.com
Don’t let fear stop you from telling your story.
Everyone has fears and worries when it comes to looking at their past and telling their stories.
But what is it costing you to keep waiting?
Maybe you’ve already put off your desire to write your life stories and heal yourself for so long it’s uncomfortable? Because it’s overwhelming, you don’t know where and how to start. Or continue. Or you’re afraid you’ll retraumatise yourself when you start to write your difficult experiences.
These are commonly shared worries, and they don’t have to stop you anymore. Don’t let another day, month, or year go by without starting your journey of writing your life stories while healing your past. Let’s explore these worries and fears, and learn how to work through them with gentle guidance and a trauma-informed approach.
Write Your Life Stories, Heal Your Past.
Your writing and healing journey before this course:
- Not writing your stories, just thinking about how much you want to write them
- You feel overwhelmed and frustrated, especially when writing about difficult or challenging parts of your story
- You’re using your writing time worrying and fretting about what others will think if you shared your stories
- You feel trapped by the monologue of your inner narratives, and longing to change your unhelpful personal myths
- You’re unsure how to go about writing your stories – you’re starting, then stopping, and feeling stuck
- Feeling alone and unsupported, not knowing where and how to start
- You’re worried you’ll get re-traumatised when you write about your difficult life experiences, so you keep googling and researching instead of writing
Your writing and healing journey after this course:
- You’re writing your stories and have a regular writing practice you enjoy
- You have body-based techniques to shift you out of overwhelm and frustration, so writing feels easeful
- You’re no longer bothered about what others will think and are writing your stories and owning the truth of your experiences
- You’re rewriting your personal myths so you can understand your life through an empowering mythic narrative
- You have the guidance and writing prompts with which to write with ease and confidence, in a step-by-step process
- Feeling supported and resourced, with next-steps for your writing and healing journey as you need them
- You’re taking a confident and compassionate approach to your own difficult life experiences, and knowing how to work with traumatic memories when they arise
Take the leap and start telling your stories!
It’s time to…
~ get those stories out of your head and onto paper
~ get those difficult experiences out of your body
~ and resolve traumatic responses for good as you alchemise them through the writing and storytelling process
What you’ll learn in
Write Your Life Stories, Heal Your Past
This self-paced on-demand course is broken into 9 modules, that will guide you to write your personal stories while healing the difficult parts of your life.
We’ll start with understanding what memoir is, how to decide what story structure is right for you, and narrow down what to include in your stories.
Throughout the process you’ll learn gentle body-based (somatic) techniques for healing (one in each module) that will support your nervous system, making it easier to move past resistance and writers block and start writing your memoir.
As you go through the course and start writing your stories you’ll connect the dots between your difficult life experiences and embodied challenges, then start shifting them, while writing your brilliant and wonderful transformational stories, using either a three or a four-act structure.
By the end you will have learned how to cultivate joy and celebrate your accomplishments on the memoir-writing and healing path.
Take a closer look at what’s inside the course:
1
MODULE ONE
Introduction
- The healing process and why this writing course has a body and somatic focus
- How to write a literary bio
- Body healing techniques
- Learn about your instructor Janelle Hardy
- Janelle’s writing and healing influences (and trainings)
- Somatic (body) healing technique: gravity is your friend
MODULE TWO
About memoir, autobiography, non-fiction and life story writing
- Explore the different forms memoir and life story writing take
- A memoir show and tell of different types of memoir
- A walk-through of how the course progresses
- How to choose a writing form and style for your stories
- Somatic (body) healing technique: O.M.G.
2
3
MODULE THREE
Moving through fear, resistance and writer’s block
- Explore how fear and types of resistance like overwhelm, procrastination, self-doubt and perfectionism get in the way of writing and healing
- Identify your ‘go-to’ resistance patterns
- Learn about common writing myths and how to avoid them
- How your excitement to write can help you deal with your fears
- Somatic (body) healing technique: hand-touch exercise
MODULE FOUR
Outline your memoir
- Learn about life story timelines, how to make them and what to put on them
- Pattern spot to identify core themes in your life
- Optional extra: do a second timeline process using a favourite ancient tale (ie: fairy tale or myth), then integrate it into your theme spotting and outlining process
- How to narrow down and outline what you want to write about (decide what makes it into your story and what gets set aside for later)
- Somatic (body) healing technique:orienting towards pleasure and joy
4
5
MODULE FIVE
Healing, memoir-writing and your nervous system
- Learn the basics about what trauma really is, how it lives in the nervous system (and to heal it)
- Explore gentle, self-healing somatic (body) techniques
- Discover how sourcing from your body, and doing trauma and nervous system healing makes you a better writer
- How to take a healing approach to your writing and stories
- Somatic (body) healing technique: walking your timeline
MODULE SIX
Structuring Your Stories
- Learn about some elegant story options
- Explore the 3-act structure and 4-act structure
- How to choose a story form, then write a personal story using your timeline
- Somatic (body) healing technique: listening and your ears
6
7
MODULE SEVEN
Writing, revising and planning
- Learn and apply writing techniques and strategies
- Consider how and when to revise your writing
- How to create a writing plan that works for you
- Somatic (body) healing technique: eyes, eyes, eyes
MODULE EIGHT
Sharing your stories
- Explore reasons for sharing, and reasons for keeping private, your personal stories
- Explore getting published, and get submission tips
- How to decide on when, how and why you’ll share your stories and writing
- Somatic (body) healing technique: letting your tongue lead you
8
9
MODULE NINE
Celebrating yourself and next steps
- Healing needs joy
- Make a plan for celebration (in whatever fun, serious or silly way you desire!)
- Recap your progress through this course
- How to plan next steps in your personal story and healing journey
- Somatic (body) healing technique: sourcing from your hands
Write Your Life Stories, Heal Your Past
By the end of this course, you’ll have identified a short personal story and theme you want to tell, then written it using a three (or four) act structure, with plenty of body-based prompts to generate creative flow and healing.
Hurrah!
Start today and get instant access to:
Lifetime access (in a self-paced video and written format)
Guided process from start to finish
Writing prompts to get you started
Somatic (body) techniques for healing
Exercises to clear writers block and keep momentum
Guidance for those concerned about writing about sad or traumatic events or other people
Although this is a self-directed course, you won’t feel like you’re doing it alone.
Inside the course you’ll find a kind, straightforward process, with plenty of video guidance from your instructor on writing your life stories and healing yourself.
It’s a self-paced and very supported process.
“Janelle’s writing process, with focus on embodiment, has been important healing work for me.
Her leadership is quiet and compassionate. Her writing process is gentle and healing.
She offers an abundant banquet and lets me choose what to try. She encourages me to go at my own pace, including information about resistance so that I don’t get stuck.”
Lisa B.
Colorado Springs
Learn more about your instructor, Janelle Hardy.
I love all things memoir, body, healing and story.
I’m a transformational memoir-writing teacher and body-based healing therapist, and I’ve been exploring stories, writing and healing since I was young.
I studied Anthropology and Dance at university, then went on to get certified in Structural Integration, a deep-tissue hands-on bodywork that integrates fascial release with movement lessons and body-mind-heart dialogue. I’m also almost finished my Somatic Experiencing certification, which is all about trauma-healing through nervous system regulation.
Over the past 20 years I’ve juggled life as a single mother, artist and perpetually curious person with many wide-ranging jobs.
You could say I collect stories through experiences, and I love making sense of and synthesizing these life experiences into story.
I’ve published my writing widely (an anthology of single mothers, newspapers and magazines), I still submit my writing regularly, and I’ve run two artist-in-residence programs.
I also host a podcast interviewing published and in-progress memoirists, storytellers and healers. These interviews are interspersed with episodes sharing writing prompts and… telling fairy tales.
I’m passionate about helping people like you do this type of healing work and I’d be honoured to guide you as you write your memoir and transform yourself.
AS FEATURED IN
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Have a question?
When does the course start and finish?
This is a self-directed on-demand course, so it starts once you sign up, and it finishes once you complete the modules and the writing.
How long is the course? How long will it take me to finish it?
However, the amount of time it will take you to work through each module, digest the material, support your healing needs and write your first short personal story is variable and unique to you.
For some, it might be a fast process.
For others, it may take more time than you think. Your healing needs might be greater than you expected. You might find that each module opens up so many story options you want to explore, that you’ll linger longer, and write more.
Any of these pathways to completion of the course are perfectly appropriate to your needs.
If it takes longer than you’d prefer, try not to make that wrong.
Instead, notice where your attention goes, and allow yourself to enjoy the process instead of rushing it.
What are the course requirements?
All you need is writing implements (pen/pencil/highlighters/pencil crayons) and substrate (paper, journal, a roll of paper).
You’re welcome to do this process on your computer, but I’ll be recommending and teaching on paper first!
What is the course format? Video, audio, written, etc?
The course will be delivered via bite sized lessons, mostly video, with captioning provided, and supplementary written materials as well as extra resources.
Do I need to be a good writer before I start?
No, you don’t need any experience writing and storytelling to take this course.
The cure for ‘bad’ writing is practice. So write more. Don’t let perfectionism stop you. Keep writing. As you commit to your writing, you’ll become a better storyteller. And then you’ll discover this truth.
And, if you do have experience, you’ll still find this course is a refreshing approach to writing, creativity, stories and the healing journey.
What does the course include?
This course includes everything you need to write your life stories while healing from the difficult experiences you’ve had, so you don’t get overwhelmed.
You’ll get instant access to the 9 modules, which are filled with guidance on writing and healing, with extra resources scattered throughout.
Scroll back up to see an overview of what’s covered in each module.
What is the refund policy?
Due to the immediately available digital nature of this course, there are no refunds.
If you’re not sure if it’s right for you, before you purchase, spend some time exploring my (Janelle’s) work on my website, listen to my podcast, access the free resources I provide. Then make your decision.
Do I get a certificate?
I don’t issue certificates. However, I love celebrating my students’ wins.
If you publish one of your stories, whether it’s in a blog post, a public newsletter, an art exhibit, in a literary journal or eventually, a book, please send me an e-mail with the link, so I can congratulate you!
Is there a community component to this course?
No, this course is self-directed and self-paced only. That’s what makes it so affordable!
This course is a great way to get started on your memoir-writing and healing journey – from there you’ll have the opportunity to learn about my other programs that include community access.
Do I get 1-1 access to the teacher in this course?
No, this course is self-directed and self-paced only. That’s what makes it so affordable!
I do offer 1-1 writing and healing support services, so if you’re looking for more personalized support thank this course provides, send an e-mail to jaha@janellehardy.com
I have another question. How can I ask it?
Click here to submit a question if you don’t see an answer in the FAQs.
“This work is so poignant and important in our lives.
I wish there was a curriculum to teach children techniques so they may have a head start!
I just wanted to thank you for the work you share. You are such a wonderful and gentle teacher.
I really appreciated the exercises you taught us.
Koreen
Writer, BC, Canada
Write Your Life Stories, Heal Your Past
It’s never too late to start!
Start today and get instant access to:
Lifetime access (in a self-paced video and written format)
Guided process from start to finish
Writing prompts to get you started
Somatic (body) techniques for healing
Exercises to clear writers block and keep momentum
Guidance for those concerned about writing about sad or traumatic events or other people