Heal Others With Your Story
Discover the power of your unique journey and inspire countless others towards healing.
With Dr. Lissa Rankin, MD
Session 1
Saturday, April 6, 2024
9:00am - 3:00pm PDT
Heal Others With Your Story. Live with Lissa Rankin and Guests
Session 2
Saturday, April 6, 2024
5:00pm - 6:30pm PDT
Live Performance Of BREASTLESS. Written and Performed by Emma Jarrett
Session 3
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Anytime
Watch 2 pre-recorded videos: The Literary Agent's Perspective and What Serves The Reader
Session 4
Wed, April 10, 2024
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm PDT
Live mentoring session. Q&A. The business of getting your story out there
“When you’ve been to hell and made it back, everything hard that’s ever happened to you is medicine for someone still in hell.” - Dr. Lissa Rankin
A transformational online workshop with
Mind Over Medicine New York Times bestselling author Dr. Lissa Rankin
Dear Friends,
“Embrace the transformative alchemy of storytelling, and with each chapter, breathe life into the hearts of those who yearn for understanding. Your voice, forged by adversity, becomes a guiding light, leading others out of the depths and towards the radiant shores of resilience. Your story, born from the embers of hardship, has the power to ignite the flames of resilience within countless souls. Let your pen become a catalyst for transformation, and may your memoir be a testament to the extraordinary strength that dwells within us all." - Dr. Lissa Rankin
Special LIVE Guest Emma Jarrett
POET | WRITER | PERFORMER
Emma Jarrett was a mentoring client of Lissa’s when she stepped into the world with her vulnerable story of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.
This took the form of a phenomenal one-woman play “Breastless”, which transformed her personal “hell and back” story into phoenix-process art.
Lissa invited Emma to perform Breastless live for you on Saturday evening.
WHY?
Imagine what the world would be like if we didn’t have Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Liz Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, Tarana Burke’s Unbound, and every book Anne Lamott and Mary Carr have ever written? All of these books are stories of traumas turned into art that heals not only those who tell the stories but also those who read, listen, and feel.
Think of all the cult survivors comforted by the memoirs of other cult survivors, the refugees healed by other refugee memoirs, or the memoirs of those who have lost a loved one that provide refuge for those who are grieving. Think of the stories of marginalized people who help heal racism, homophobia, sexism, or xenophobia by telling their stories and enlightening us all. Think of sick people who help heal and offer hope to other sick people or survivors of narcissistic abuse who validate that others like them are not crazy or foolish.
Even if a thousand people have told stories about something similar to what you went through, nobody has ever told your story your way. Plus, nobody else will ever be beautiful, wise, awakening YOU.
Creating art from your story in whatever form it flows out is the first step to letting your storytelling be medicine for your therapeutic process. When we exercise agency and take control of our story, transforming it into a work of beauty and grace, even if it’s also painful, we help solidify the neurological process of “memory reconsolidation,” not only rewriting our story into one of transformation but also rewiring our neural pathways to prepare for the neurophysiology of healing, rather than trauma.
It’s a brave moment when your story becomes your power and your power become your purpose- to help others heal the way you have at least started to heal, whether you’re preparing to tell your story via memoir writing, fiction writing, art-making, playwriting, songwriting, public speaking, blogging, social media, a podcast, a YouTube channel, or some other creative outlet,
- You don’t have to be enlightened and zen to tell your story (in fact, it’s usually a better story if you’re not.),
- You don’t have to be all the way healed to tell your story,
- You don’t have to have a happy ending yet,
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You don’t have to be good or perfect or done being a hot mess to help others who are still in hell when you’re further along on your “hell and back” journey,
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You don’t have to be much further along in your healing journey than those a few steps behind you in order to be helpful. In fact, you might just be so close to those a few steps behind you that you know exactly what the “you” of a year ago needed but didn’t get.
- Yes, it’s good to be “healed enough” so you don’t harm others with the way you put your story out there,
- Yes, it’s good to contain yourself so you don’t take on responsibilities that are outside your scope of practice, overstepping with interventions you’re not qualified to handle such that you could harm those you intend to help heal,
- Yes, it’s wise to have good boundaries so you can tell your story as a tool of justice but not a weapon of revenge.
But all things considered, sometimes you help others the most when you show them the grit, the spills, the moxie, and the mess all rolled into your story. That way, they can recognize their own grit, spills, moxie, and mess and feel less alone and more empowered, so they big up their BRAVE and rise like the phoenix from the ashes.
Telling Your Story The Right Way Can Help Your Parts Heal
Not all storytelling heals the one telling the story. Sometimes it can be retraumatizing if you’re not prepared for the aftermath of telling your story publicly.
But if your storytelling journey is nurtured and your story is received safely enough, it can be wildly liberating to get your story out of your body and out into the world where it can work its magic and impact others. It can also help you heal to see your story inspiring, validating, and guiding others, giving meaning to the suffering and creating community around shared wounds and collective recovery paths.
However, your story comes out, telling your story of trauma to transformation can be a potent medicine for the healing process. It gives your parts a chance to be witnessed, mirrored, and validated by others, something many trauma survivors fail to get from those who have hurt them and those who enable their abusers. You get to feel the love, care, compassion, and empathy of others who can cheer you on along your healing journey and feel inspired to take the next steps in their own recovery journeys.
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
-Maya Angelou
Working With Your “Parts” That Do & Don’t Want You To Tell Your Story
For ten years, Lissa has facilitated her Visionary Mentoring Program. Many of those clients were preparing to tell their stories publicly and wanted support for that vulnerable hero’s/ heroine’s journey. Some of the mentoring was logistical support, business planning, practical advice, or accountability partnering.
But much of the mentoring revolved around working with the parts of people who want to tell their story to those who might benefit from hearing it- and those other adorable parts that didn’t want to do so and tended to sabotage the great efforts other parts made towards achieving a goal.
In this workshop, we will do what other writing workshops and publishing program typically fail to do. We will do some Internal Family Systems (IFS) work with the parts that do and don’t want you to tell your story- to help you get to the 8 C’s of Self that make any storytelling adventure better: clarity, calmness, confidence, courage, connectedness, creativity, curiosity, and compassion.
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect." - Anaïs Nin
Publish Your Story
This workshop will also offer practical support, advice from Lissa, Lissa’s literary agent Michele Martin, and former Sounds True editor and memoirist Jennifer Brown, and Q&A around the book publishing process. We’ll discuss traditional book publishing versus self-publishing, how to get the right literary agent, what acquisitions editors look for in a memoir, and some tips for structuring your memoir.
Pre-Recorded Video
The Literary Agent's Perspective
MICHELE MARTIN
Literary agent at MDM Management
Pre-Recorded Video
What Serves The Reader
JENNIFER YVETTE BROWN
Writer and former executive editor at Sounds True
"Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open." -Natalie Goldberg
You’ll Benefit If You Are...
Feeling a strong sense of purpose, even a calling, to tell your story in order to help others like you heal;
Curious about the different ways you might tell your story;
Thinking about publishing your memoir or loosely fictionalized book;
Interested in exploring some light Internal Family Systems (IFS) parts work on the parts that can’t wait to tell your story and the ones who might feel scared, hesitant, or resistant to putting your story out there;
Considering telling your story and you’re wanting to get the lay of the land to gain clarity on where you might want to go with your storytelling journey;
Desiring connections with other like-minded, open-hearted souls who are preparing to tell their “hell and back” stories;
Wanting to meet a creative partner from the workshop community who might be willing to trade off receiving your story and giving feedback about however you’re telling your story (totally optional, of course).
"In the depths of your pain lies the power to illuminate countless lives. Your journey, once marked by shadows, now carries the seeds of inspiration and healing. Let your words dance upon the pages, for through your memoir, you gift others the courage to face their own darkness and find the flicker of hope within.” -Lissa Rankin, MD, author of memoirs The Anatomy Of A Calling and Sacred Medicine
In this workshop, you will learn...
- Different ways you might tell your story- from very small to very big;
- The difference between telling your story for therapeutic purposes and a story you tell to help other learn, heal and grow;
- Some basic nuts and bolts about publishing a book, like how to find a literary agent, whether to publish traditionally, self-publish, or publish your story online, how to get an acquisition editor’s attention with your story, and what it takes to score a big book deal;
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Tips for getting a start towards becoming an inspirational speaker, giving a TED talk, or other verbal ways of telling your story;
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Simple Internal Family System tools to help you with parts are super excited to tell your story and parts that really don’t want you to tell it;
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Basic ethical boundaries about what is your story to tell and what isn’t.
Session details
Session 1
Saturday, April 6, 2024
9:00am - 3:00pm PDT
Session 2
Saturday, April 6, 2024
5:00pm - 6:30pm PDT
Session Two is a live Zoom performance of Emma Jarrett’s courageous effort to heal others with her story, through her spoken word, one woman play BREASTLESS.
BREASTLESS has been described as “a poetic but unflinching account of one woman’s diagnosis and treatment for Breast Cancer.” This one-woman spoken word poetry performance by Emma Jarrett, will leave you in jaw-dropping awe of one woman’s healing journey- and how she’s now healing others with her story. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, your heart will go out to Emma and others who have endured medical trauma, and you’ll feel uplifted and inspired, not only to cheerlead Emma’s courage, but to tap into your own.
On the topic of healing others with her story, Emma writes, “After 2 years of external care and cure, I completed my own healing with writing. Poetry at first, some journaling as I emerged from the mind-numbing shock and treatments and then I wrote and performed on stage, BREASTLESS. Voicing this for myself, and discovering that I was giving voice to an all-too-common experience for many other women, brought purpose and meaning - a new story about my value emerged.”
Session 3
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Anytime
Session 4
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm PDT
After a few days of processing and integrating the other two sessions, we’ll come together for some business mentoring for those of you who are serious about getting your story out there- but aren’t quite sure how to start from a business perspective.
Many people feel a passionate activist spirit that compels us to feel a strong sense of mission, a calling that guides us to want to use our stories and share what we’ve learned along our healing journeys with others who are not quite as far on the path of healing.
Unfortunately, that calling doesn’t usually come with instructions or a business plan. That’s where this Business Mentoring session with Lissa and Nicolay Kreidler comes in. We’ll talk about the business of getting your story out there and field any lingering questions that may have arisen during the other sessions.
By the end of this session, we hope you’ll have at least one next action step to help you heal others with your story.
Bonus Call: Glenn Yeffeth
Live Call on Tuesday, April 9th, 2024
12:00 - 1:00 pm PT / 3:00 - 4:00 pm ET
Glenn Yeffeth is CEO of BenBella Books. For 15 years, Glenn was a corporate strategist and marketer who ran companies in Chicago, London, and Dallas. In 2001, Glenn formed BenBella Books (named after Glenn’s children Benjamin and Isabella) to combine his love for books with his passion for marketing. Glenn has an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Chicago and a BA in History from Oberlin College. His favorite book is The DaVinci Mole, a little-known work by the eminent philosopher Dr. Ian Browne.
As the founder of Ben Bella Publishing and also Lissa & Jeffrey Rediger’s publisher for their next book YOU-Turn about narcissistic abuse and recovery from medical illness, Glenn Yeffeth knows a thing or two about healing others with your story. He’s published many memoirs with Ben Bella Books and has a unique perspective to share with anyone who is considering going public with your story through the memoir-writing and publishing process. Glenn and Lissa will discuss the publishing process for memoirs, and Glenn will field live Q&A for anyone who wants the chance to get up close and personal with a real, live publisher.
"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." - Toni Morrison
Bonus 1
Join Dr. Frank Anderson, psychiatrist, author, and vice chair of the Foundation for Self Leadership and Dr. Lissa Rankin for this exclusive exploration.
In this 60-minute pre-recorded interview on using Internal Family Systems with our memoir writing experience, we’ll talk about how to write about our most vulnerable parts safely, making sure we get permission from the parts of us that are afraid to get in touch with our most wounded parts, even in our writing.
Bonus 2
Memoir Publishing with Nancy Aronie
Prerecorded Q&A With Lissa & “Memoir As Medicine” Author Nancy Aronie.
About Memoir Writing, Publishing, & How To Get Up The Nerve To Get Your Story Out There
"The container of this course, the class content, the break-outs and the written connection here in the group have been hugely helpful to me. It has definitely given me the confidence to move forward in my projects. — Emma Jarrett." Memoir as Medicine 2022
Heal Others With Your Story
Only $297 $197
USD
Includes All Bonuses
If the cost of this workshop presents a financial hardship, we hope you will contact us for a sliding scale option. Please write to support@lissarankin.com
All sessions will be recorded and made available to participants and can be downloaded to your computer or device.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer CEUs for this course.
Lissa Rankin, MD
EMMA JARRETT
I believe in the power of story and story-telling.
We live in accordance with the stories we tell ourselves and we surround ourselves with people who validate that story, telling themselves a similar one. We find meaning and comfort in that perspective. But then life happens in ways that conflict with our ideas of ‘how it should be’. We feel on shaky ground as our ideas and stories get challenged. We might get humbled that our stories are most certainly not the only one and might actually be mistaken. Here’s our opportunity to listen and learn: first and foremost to ourselves, then also to each other.
This has happened to me on countless occasions, starting with a health crisis at age 22 which literally had me flat on my back for days, questioning what I was capable of.
A variety of iterations of that throughout my life have brought cause for self-reflection and consideration of the mind-body dynamic, how trauma affects us, how creativity can save us, but the biggest shake-up came as I crossed into my second half century, happily a mother of two and a life of plenty. I glibly imagined decades to come when I was hit with a breast cancer diagnosis. “This can’t be right, I live so healthily!”, I found myself saying: another story which was holding me falsely secure.
After 2 years of external care and cure, I completed my own healing with writing. Poetry at first, some journaling as I emerged from the mind-numbing shock and treatments and then I wrote and performed on stage, Breastless, - “a poetic but unflinching account of one woman’s diagnosis and treatment for Breast Cancer”. Voicing this for myself, and discovering that I was giving voice to an all-too-common experience for many other women, brought purpose and meaning - a new story about my value emerged.
My hope is that together here we can bring light to all of our stories. To our humanity — our similarities and our differences — and to the scars that inevitably come with life. Much can be mined from our losses, disappointments, plot-twists.
Some of you are seasoned writers, some of you journal for your own consideration only, some I know are keen to share what is pouring out of you like heated gold into the salty ocean where it is cooling into shape as words. Gathered together in order, these words make new meaning for you - and potentially for those who read them.
A story shared is a powerful force. Perhaps the ONLY force that can truly change our world; our inner and our outer experience. I am keen to find out whether we can heal our experience of community as we share our creative ideas, our experiences and our desires for our future. As we enter, via story, into an embrace larger than we think is humanly possible.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I contact customer service?
Please contact us by sending an email to support@lissarankin.com
What kind of technology will I need in order to participate?
In order to participate in this course, you will need to Access our learning platform through a web browser like Chrome or Safari. Teachable is a platform that hosts all the material for the course.
You will need a good connection to the internet. You can use a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone.
Do you offer stipends or adjustments?
We believe that money should not be an obstacle to healing. If you currently do not have the means please write to support@lissarankin.com
Where can I access the recorded calls?
Once you have signed up you will log in to our learning platform where you will find all recordings and material. You will have access to everything for the indefinite future.
Can you call me?
We are not resourced to make calls to individuals. You can reach us by email at support@lissarankin.com.
I don't have Facebook!
If there is an associated private Facebook group, we recommend you join. It is optional but not critical for the course so don't worry if you don't have Facebook.
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Once you make a payment it triggers a series of events and expenses on our side from payment processing costs to adding you to lists and platforms. If you cancel, we cannot recoup those costs and will have to pass them on to you. Please read our terms carefully before you make a purchase. Terms
I am visually impaired
A person who is visually impaired will be able to navigate our content using a reader and other common navigational tools. We do not rely on slides or other visual representations.