Third Edition • Live Interactive Online

Memoir as Medicine

A Healing Writing Workshop with Lissa Rankin, MD and Nancy Slonim Aronie

"Every hard thing that's ever happened to you is memoir-making material." 

Have you ever thought of writing your memoir as part of your healing process? If so, you're not alone. Kick off your creativity and join writing teachers Lissa Rankin, MD and Nancy Aronie as they combine forces for six 2-hour live Zoom sessions over six weeks starting June 28th, 2023. This healing writing workshop, based on Nancy's book - Memoir as Medicine, will help you create beauty from the life challenges that made you who you are today. 

Now in its third iteration, Memoir as Medicine invites alumni and new students to participate in this heart-opening writing workshop. No two workshops are the the same. Each has its own unique flavor inspired by the you. Join us!

  • Six two-hour live interactive video workshops on Zoom
  • 55-page Memoir as Medicine workbook
  • Memoir as Medicine Community Writing Prompts
  • ​Unlimited access to all recordings and material

Early Bird Ends June 4th. 2023!

"This has been a gift and I feel the green sprouts of community in my life, a circle, intentional community among my friends, neighbours." - Danielle

Wed
June 28 2023

Wed
JULY 5 2023

Wed
JULY 12 2023

Wed
JULY 19 2023

Wed JULY 26 
2023

WEd
AUG 2 2023

10am - 12pm Pacific Standard Time

12pm - 2pm Central Standard Time

1pm - 3pm Eastern Standard Time

Dr. Lissa Rankin

New York Times bestselling author, doctor, researcher, and teacher.

Nancy Aronie

Writer, author, teacher, and 
workshop leader.

Special Live Guest

Writer and former Executive Editor at Sounds True

Jennifer Yvette Brown

None of us would ever wish for heart-wrenching traumatic experiences so we'd have material for writing kick-ass memoirs.

But if you're a human on Planet Earth right now, that means you've experienced trauma. We can either get crushed by our traumas or we can choose to transform them into art as part of our medical and therapeutic treatment. 

All of our traumas are memoir-making material, and it's incredibly healing when we can alchemize our shit into gold.

Writing and sharing our stories while allowing the emotions that accompany them to flow through us in a safe, sacred space is a key part of the healing process. Usually, when we tell our painful stories in our own families, we're met with blame, shame, defensiveness, denial, gaslighting, delusion, attack, magical thinking, or spiritual bypassing, rather than the unconditional acceptance, love, and validation that helps us heal.

And if we write our memoir stories and have our heart-breaking and heart-opening stories witnessed, attuned to, mirrored, validated, co-regulated and even celebrated in safe brave spaces with other memoir writers, healing happens- Every. Single. Time. 
Not only can we create beautiful writing that helps us rewrite our trauma stories into stories of repair, resilience, and courage; we also get to help others with the stories we write, making meaning out of what happened to us and even turning our stories into service.
If you and your muse are already working on your memoir- or you're thinking about getting started- join Lissa Rankin, MD and Nancy Slonim Aronie for this 6-week Zoom class Memoir As Medicine.

We'll be using as our text for this class Lissa's first writing teacher Nancy Slonim Aronie's new book Memoir As Medicine and working through some of the creative prompts in the book. 

Nancy says, "I started the Chilmark Writing Workshop after I had been to writing groups that destroyed me and everyone else in the room. I learned early on that Creativity requires safety." We will create that safety, so your muse can create something spectacular!

"Everyone has a story to tell and telling it is important. Sharing 'this is who I am, these are the things that shaped me, this is where I am now' allows a kind of magic and healing to happen." - Nancy Slonim Aronie, author of Memoir As Medicine

Lissa knows personally how transformational that kind of safety can be for the creative process. 

Lissa had never written a book when she first took Nancy's Writing From The Heart workshop at Esalen in 2007, right after her father died, she had a baby, and she quit her job as a doctor in the wake of her Perfect Storm (aka memoir-making material.)

After that workshop, her first memoir flew out of her. Nancy and the community of other memoir writers opened up her writing voice, and although that first book didn't get published (Lissa had no "platform" at the time), she's published seven books since then, including two memoirs.

Owning, writing, and transforming your own story from pain into magnificence is worth doing purely for medicinal purposes, regardless of whether anybody else ever reads your writing. But some trauma survivors feel passionate about sharing the lessons they've learned from their memoir-making material and have a bee in their bonnets about helping others who are still in hell when they've been to hell and made it back with holy grails of wisdom.
While you certainly don't have to publish your memoir in order to receive the healing benefits of writing it, sometimes holding your story in a book in your hands helps you get it out of your body and into something beautiful that can help others, even if you self publish it.

The Workshop Program*

Six LIVE 2-hour Zoom Sessions with Lissa Rankin & Nancy Slonim Aronie

All sessions will be recorded and are available within 24 hours of each session.

* Session content subject to adjustment.

"So many thanks and praises to Lissa Rankin and her team, and to all who made this class such a nourishing, inspiring, and illuminating experience!" - Elka Wilder

Session One
Wednesday, June 28th. 2023.
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Getting Your Muse & 
Your Memoir Started
- with Lissa & Nancy
Session Two
Wednesday, July 5th. 2023.
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Befriend The Parts Of You That Want You To Write (& The Parts That Don't)
- with Lissa & Nancy
Session Three
Wednesday, July 12th. 2023.
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Ground Your Story In The Aliveness of Place & The Pace Of Plot
- with Lissa & Nancy
Session Four
Wednesday, July 19th. 2023.
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Time
The Intimate Joys (& Sneaky Revenges) of Character Development
- with Lissa & Nancy
Session Five
Wednesday, July 26th. 2023.
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Monologues & Dialogues
- with Lissa & Nancy

Session Six
Wednesday, August 2nd. 2023.
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Tying It All Together
-with Lissa & Nancy

+ Plus

Memoir as Medicine Companion Workbook
This workbook is designed to be a companion piece to the live workshop, but it can also be used as a standalone resource.
Writing a memoir can be a powerful and transformative experience. It allows us to process and make sense of our own experiences, and can provide us with a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. It can also be a cathartic and healing process, helping us to work through difficult emotions and experiences.

This workbook is organized into a series of exercises and prompts that will guide you through the process. Each exercise is designed to help you dig deeper and explore the stories and experiences that are most meaningful to you.

+ + Plus

BONUS MATERIAL
These additional resources will allow you to go deeper in your writing practice
It's for all of you who have always dreamed of letting your inner author play with the muse unapologetically–as a way to deepen your spiritual connection and live a more soulful life. This mini writing workshop is designed to let you flirt with the muse as a gateway to more soulfulness. It will also help you unleash creative constraints, and either start a new writing project, or deepen into an existing one.
  • Alchemizing Uncertain Times Through Writing. Full workshop recordings with workbook from the successful writing workshop.
  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) for Creativity

    Interested in publishing your memoir?
  • ​Recorded Interview with Independent Book Agent Michele Martin.
  • Recorded ​Interview with Sounds True Editor Jennifer Brown.

About Nancy Slonim Aronie

Nancy Slonim Aronie has been a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. She was a Visiting Writer at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, wrote a monthly column in McCall’s magazine and was the recipient of the Eye of The Beholder Artist in Residence award at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Nancy won teacher of the year award for all three years she taught at Harvard University for Robert Coles.

She gives writing workshops and lectures at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Omega Institute, Rowe Conference Center, Esalen, Wain-Wright House and The Open Center in New York City.
Nancy Slonim Aronie is a force of nature. Her teachings inspire writers to speak their truth, to be more present in their lives, and to connect with others. Her approach centers around keeping a sense of safety and positivity at the center of the process.

Nancy writes, “If you feel safe, you can do anything. You can take the risk of saying this is who I am, this is what terrifies me, this is what moves me, this is what makes me laugh. When you take that risk, you dig deep. You will access your innocence, your truth and your vulnerability and then you cannot miss.”

In addition to "Memoir as Medicine," Aronie has also wrote "Writing from the Heart: Tapping the Power of Your Inner Voice."

Aronie is a strong advocate for the therapeutic benefits of writing and has used her own personal experiences with cancer and loss to inspire others to use writing as a means of self-exploration and healing. She has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and NPR, and has conducted writing workshops and retreats around the world.

About Lissa Rankin, MD

Lissa Rankin, MD believes that writing and healing can be intimately related and teaches writing workshops infused with trauma healing and spiritual healing, both in person and virtually. Lissa agrees with Nancy Aronie that trauma is memoir-making material, and we can alchemize our pain into the most beautiful story-telling when we feel safe for the muse to come out to play, in a community of other writers who also feel safe and can help us hold our story while we rewrite it as art. 

Lissa has been writing since kindergarten and was offered her first book deal when she was 12, which she turned down, since they were her private stories. She was a creative writing major at Duke University and wrote her first fiction book as her thesis on African American women's literature while in college. Throughout her medical training while becoming an OB/GYN, she wrote stories inspired by her patients and used writing to heal the moral injury she felt while working within a corrupt medical system. 

When she quit her job as a doctor in 2007, she finally succumbed to her lifelong desire to be a career writer. Her first book Broken, a memoir about her journey through the wounded health care system, never got published because she didn't have an audience. So at the urging of her literary agent, in 2009, Lissa began blogging and publishing The Daily Flame, a daily email love letter from your "Inner Pilot Light" to your wounded parts, based on the healing model Internal Family Systems (IFS), a trauma healing spiritual path which Lissa incorporates into all the healing and writing workshops she facilitates. 
Because her blog and Daily Flame emails quickly garnered a large readership, she was able to publish her first book in 2010 and has been blessed to have her last 7 books published. Her third book, the New York Times bestseller Mind Over Medicine, has sold over 300,000 copies in 28 languages. 

In addition to putting in her 100,000 hours and writing every day, in 2012, Lissa founded the Whole Health Medicine Institute, where she and a team of luminary faculty train physicians and other health care providers about “Whole Health” and the “6 Steps to Healing Yourself.” 

Lissa has starred in two National Public Television specials, her TEDx talks have been viewed over 5 million times, and she leads workshops, both online and at retreat centers like Esalen, 1440, Omega, and Kripalu. 

Her latest health equity project is non-profit work committed to democratizing trauma healing and spiritual healing while eliminating the public health epidemic of loneliness, bringing Sacred Medicine out of its current status as a luxury good to anyone who needs it and is open to it, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or gender identity. 

Lissa lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter Mira, who is also a writer, and her puppy Gaia, who would tell great stories if only she knew how.

About Jennifer Yvette Brown

Jennifer Yvette Brown is a writer and NYT-bestselling publishing professional with 18 years of experience developing prescriptive non-fiction. She has worked with some of the most revered names in self-help, spirituality, health, and psychology to create books and brands that shape the cultural conversation. Her authors include trauma expert Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, cultural icon Ram Dass, healing expert Dr. Lissa Rankin, social justice innovator Justin Michael Williams, and Wim “The Iceman” Hof.
Jennifer feeds her curious mind and addiction to wonder by regularly attending conferences devoted to everything from entrepreneurship to energy psychology, from sound healing to psychotherapy. With an early background in the arts and education, she holds degrees in Music,
Religious Studies, and Tibetan language. In her time as an editor and content curator, she has seen what was once on the fringe come to center and what was once considered proven debunked. She reviews every manuscript, therefore, with both a beginner’s mind and a skeptic’s, as both a reader and a businessperson. This is how she helps authors find their most essential message and frame it for their widest audience.

If Jennifer’s roots are in the Midwest, she found her wings in Manhattan, where she once helped to establish a Buddhist text preservation project on 5th Avenue. A long-time resident of Colorado, she loves to plant trees, sing songs, ride her gravel bike, throw sticks for the dog, and write every morning.

~

"I really needed and enjoyed the excuse to write regularly and in a community of like-minded, loving, badass people. And it is so medicinal to me to continually be exposed to the unique and beautiful way Lissa articulates a nuanced perspective on how to heal, at the personal as well as societal level, melding wisdom about the connections between mind, body, and spirit without spiritual bypassing and abandoning social and eco-justice principles." - Kaeley

Memoir as Medicine
US $297
including 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 
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:
a. Access Zoom for the live calls and 
b. Access our learning platform through a web browser like Chrome or Safari. Teachable is a platform that hosts all the material for the course, including class recordings. 

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
I can't make some or any of the live calls
Many participants do not come to the live calls for many reasons ranging from time zones to work schedules or emergencies. For some its simply a choice. All classes are recorded and made available together with any material indefinitely on our teaching site.  Chose what is best for you. You will not miss out on any content.
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.
Screenshot of Lissa Rankin teaching in a video
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. It takes time to provide the content after a call. Usually we will post within 24 hours. 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.
Can I cancel?
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
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If  the cost of this program presents a financial hardship then we hope you will contact us for a sliding scale option. Please write to support@lissarankin.com