The Rewriting Your Story workshop is for you if you are:
a woman who wanted to have children but it didn’t work out for some reason…
interested in personal journalling and/or personal writing of some sort and interested in exploring that further. You don’t need to be a professional writer (or even think you’re any good!)
bored of the very narrow narratives that our culture has for childless women from ‘career woman’ to ‘crazy cat lady’ and ready to rewrite your part…
ready to try out some new… Show more answers to the dreaded, ‘So, have you got children then?’ question
looking to make new friends with other childless women who are also interested in creative writing
Personal journalling, online blogging, poetry and creative writing have been vital in my recovery from childlessness. Jody, Author and Founder of Gateway Women
During our day together you will:
Use led creative-writing techniques to explore the assumptions that society has about motherhood (and non-motherhood) and start rewriting what doesn’t ‘fit’ you
Explore the story you tell yourself about why you came to be a childless woman and see how creative writing can let some fresh air into that stale room…
Discover how unexamined and unexpressed grief about your childlessness may be holding you back in surprising ways, and how creative writing can help to explore and release this and help you move forward again…
Consider different forms of creative writing and how each can be used to bring both pleasure, meaning and healing into your life…
Meet a fantastic bunch of women who just happen not to be mothers and who ‘get’ how hard it can be to be childless in our motherhood-mad world!
The Practical Bit
When: Sunday 26th October 2014
Times: 10am – 5pm
How Much: £150 (either pay in full, or pay a deposit of £50 to book and a second payment of £100 on or before 10th October. If you would rather not book via Eventbrite/PayPal, please email jody@gateway-women.com to arrange to pay by bank transfer or cheque.
Lunch & Breaks: Lunch will roughly 1-2pm and you are welcome to bring a packed lunch or grab a bite from Tesco or Pret-a-Manger or Pizza Express on the doorstep. Regents Park is just across the road if you’d like to stretch your legs. We also break in the morning and afternoon for 15 mins and coffee/tea is provided.
Where: Park Crescent Conference Centre, International Students House, 229 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5PN (30 seconds from Great Portland Street tube station) Click here for map. The entrance to the building is through a courtyard to the right of Pizza Express. It’s the very last building on Great Portland Street before you get to Euston Road. It looks a bit like an office building from the outside and has a small tarmac courtyard in front of it.
How many women: Maximum of 12 women
Who is this workshop for? Women of any age who wanted to have children and for some reason, it didn’t work out and are no longer hopeful of having a biological child. You don’t need to be a professional writer (or even think you’re any good!) but you must feel drawn to personal journaling and/or creative writing of some sort.
Any other questions or if you want to have a chat with Jody before booking, please email jody@gateway-women.com
Before & after the Workshop – the Gateway Women Private Online Community & Meetup Groups
Before this workshop, you are warmly invited to join GW+, Gateway Women’s private online community (if you’re not already a member). It’s a way to get a flavour for the Gateway Women philosophy and also to start getting to know each other ahead of this workshop. After the workshop, and using the already existing Gateway Women Meetup Group, you will be supported as you start organising your own get-togethers to continue the process of ‘moving on’ by meeting some great new women in your area. So far, there are active Gateway Women Meetup Groups in London, Brighton, Bristol-area, Glasgow/Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford/Reading, Newcastle and Kent with more developing all the time.
About Jody & Gateway Women
This workshop will be led by Jody Day, the “warm, witty & wise” Founder of Gateway Women - an organisation she founded to support, inspire and empower childless-by-circumstance women (like herself) to live meaningful and fulfilling lives. Read more about Jody’s story in this interview she gave to The Guardian in February 2012. Jody runs regular workshops & public talks for Gateway Women, as well as offering a limited number of private sessions in person in West London or via phone/Skype. She also runs the dynamic private online GW+ Community with members of all ages and all kinds of experiences from all over the world. A godmother & aunt many times over but never a mother, Jody speaks regularly at events and in the media, and is becoming known as ‘the voice of the childless generation’. Her book: “Rocking the Life Unexpected: 12-weeks to Your Plan B for a Meaningful & Fulfilling Life Without Children” came out in Autumn 2013 and went to #1 on Amazon within 24 hours. Jody has a First Class degree and Masters in English Literature and also studied Creative Writing at the University of London as well as attending a number of creative writing workshops. She has been writing her entire life, and credits personal blogging, poetry and journaling as one of the key elements of grief work that have enabled her to rewrite her own story as a childless woman and become not just at peace, but excited again about her life as a woman without children.
Show less