Category: Workshop

Scars, X-Rays, Tattoos, and Other Stories of The Body

Scars, X-Rays, Tattoos, and Other Stories of The Body 🗓

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

A Workshop for Medical Students, Residents and Health Professionals 

When you look at a body, you see a history. 

Once the body isn’t seen anymore, 

the story it tried to tell gets lost.   

Louise Gluck

This workshop explores how our bodies tell stories and how we respond to them in ourselves and with each other. Using poems as prompts, we’ll write, aiming to explore and express some of what our bodies are saying, getting to hear and voice these implicit, ongoing conversations. In reflecting on our own embodied expressions, we’ll begin to reflect on the stories patients might be telling or not with theirs. The event is synced to Halloween, a public reminder of how we inhabit our bodies, consciously and unconsciously, by choice or by chance.

Learning Objectives:

  1. To get curious about the stories a body is telling
  2. To use poetry as a way to reflect on and deepen your health care practice
  3. To process experiences as a practitioner or student in health care
  4. To learn five rules for writing which can offer a method of self-care and reflection

Time and place:

Thursday October 28, 2021
5:30PM-7PM
On Zoom.

Register here.

Ronna Bloom is a poet and teacher. Her most recent book, The More, was published by Pedlar Press in 2017 and long listed for the City of Toronto Book Award. Her poems have been recorded by the CNIB and translated into Spanish, Bangla, and Chinese. She has collaborated with health care professionals, filmmakers, academics, students, spiritual leaders, and architects. A frequent guest in the faculties of Nursing, Medicine, Public Health, as well at teaching hospitals, she brings 25 years of psychotherapy practice to her work as a poet and facilitator.

Ronna developed the first Poet in Residence program at Sinai Health which ran from 2012-2019. She is currently Poet in Community to the University of Toronto and Poet in Residence in the Health, Arts and Humanities Programme. Her “Spontaneous Poetry Booth” and “RX for Poetry” have been featured in hospitals and fundraisers in Canada and abroad. A chapbook of Ronna’s new poems, Who is your mercy contact? will be published by Espresso-Chapbooks in January 2022.

Ronna Bloom, M.ED
Poet in Residence, HAH, University of Toronto
Poet in Community, University of Toronto
www.ronnabloom.com

Writing Your Way Out of a Paper Bag - A Workshop for Health Care Professionals

Writing Your Way Out of a Paper Bag – A Workshop for Health Care Professionals 🗓

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

Writing Your Way Out of a Paper Bag

A Writing Workshop for Health Care Professionals Who Are Feeling Stuck or Blocked in Any Aspect of Their Lives

Often in life and in work we get stuck and aren’t sure how to move forward. This workshop uses writing to target stuck places and help unstick them. It offers a creative way to explore challenges and perhaps show the possibility of new directions. A brief talk will be given on blocks and the tactics we use to avoid or deal with situations. Participants are then guided through three reflective writing exercises. (This is done in a creative, non-didactic way and it doesn’t promise to solve anything! It’s meant to be fun.) No experience necessary.

Goals:

  1. To learn five rules for writing that can be used as part of a commitment to personal health and renewal through creativity and awareness.
  2. To use poetry and writing as a tools for understanding and expressing challenges at work and in life
  3. To explore writing as a practice of self-care

Time and Place:

Wednesday September 29, 2021
5:30PM-7PM
On Zoom.

The workshop is open to residents, physicians, nurses, medical students, therapists and other health care practitioners. Sponsored by the Temerity Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto

Register here.

Ronna Bloom is a poet and teacher. Her most recent book, The More, was published by Pedlar Press in 2017 and long listed for the City of Toronto Book Award. Her poems have been recorded by the CNIB and translated into Spanish, Bangla, and Chinese. She has collaborated with health care professionals, filmmakers, academics, students, spiritual leaders, and architects. A frequent guest in the faculties of Nursing, Medicine, Public Health, as well at teaching hospitals, she brings 25 years of psychotherapy practice to her work as a poet and facilitator.

Ronna developed the first Poet in Residence program at Sinai Health which ran from 2012-2019. She is currently Poet in Community to the University of Toronto and Poet in Residence in the Health, Arts and Humanities Programme. Her “Spontaneous Poetry Booth” and “RX for Poetry” have been featured in hospitals and fundraisers in Canada and abroad. A chapbook of Ronna’s new poems, Who is your mercy contact? will be published by Espresso-Chapbooks early 2022.

Ronna Bloom, M.ED
Poet in Residence, HAH, University of Toronto
Poet in Community, University of Toronto
www.ronnabloom.com  

The Mudroom – Guided Creative Workshops for Health Professionals Starts September 22

The Mudroom – Guided Creative Workshops for Health Professionals Starts September 22 🗓

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

MONTHLY WRITING WORKSHOP FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WITH NOVELIST AND NARRATIVE-BASED MEDICINE EDUCATOR, 

DAMIAN TARNOPOLSKY PHD.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO CPD.  REGISTER NOW !

 

The Mudroom – Guided Creative Workshops for Health Professionals
Register today to get started on September 22, 2021

The Mudroom: Guided Creative Workshops
For Health Professionals

The Mudroom is a new creative and reflective writing workshop for health professionals. Monthly meetings provide a space to write, read, try out exercises in prose and verse, share work and give feedback. In between meetings, the collaboration and connection continues with online sharing.

This program is ideal for health professionals seeking to explore creative and reflective writing, and will benefit healthcare practitioners from multiple disciplines, looking for creatively informed approaches to their professional practice. All are welcome to register!

The Mudroom offers participants direct mentorship and editing from the facilitator, Damian Tarnopolsky, an accomplished novelist and prize-winning playwright with long experience teaching writing and reflection to health professionals.

Damian Tarnopolsky PhD
Course Director, Narrative-Based Medicine: An Introduction to Reading, Writing, and Reflecting in Clinical Practice and Self-Care
Writer-in-Residence, Health, Arts, and Humanities Program, University of Toronto

The program takes place in five Wednesday evening workshop sessions, from September 22, 2021 through January 12, 2022.

Register by August 16, 2021, to save $100 with early-bird pricing! See the program website or complete details and save your spot to get started in September.

[Learn more and Registration]

Grief, Gratitude, and Meditative Awareness

Grief, Gratitude, and Meditative Awareness 🗓

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

Grief, Gratitude, and Meditative Awareness

A reflective writing session for Medical Students, Doctors, Residents, and Health Professionals

When we talk about being grateful, it sometimes feels like an attempt to override the grief we are also living with. Like telling ourselves to eat our peas because they’re good for us, a finger wagging into appreciation. But why is gratitude useful, and how can we experience it while feeling the pain around us and within us? This session uses poetry, conversation, and a meditation practice to tap into the well-being gratitude can sometimes offer, even now.

No experience necessary. Please have a pen and paper, a notebook or whatever you like to write with on hand.

Wednesday April 28, 2021

5:30PM-7PM

You will receive a link when you register

Goals

— Learn five rules for writing that can be used to reflect on one’s work, relationships, and life

— Listen to poems and experience them as prompts for reflection.

— Engage in a meditation practice aimed at opening the heart in pain

— Explore poetry and writing as practices of self-care

 

Workshop leader:

Ronna Bloom is a poet and teacher. Her most recent book, The More, was published by Pedlar Press in 2017 and long listed for the City of Toronto Book Award. Her poems have been recorded by the CNIB and translated into Spanish, Bangla, and Chinese. She has collaborated with health care professionals, filmmakers, academics, students, spiritual leaders, and architects. A frequent guest in the faculties of Nursing, Medicine, Public Health, as well at teaching hospitals, she brings 25 years of psychotherapy practice to her work as a poet and facilitator.

Ronna developed the first Poet in Residence program at Sinai Health. She is currently Poet in Community to the University of Toronto and Poet in Residence in the Health, Arts and Humanities Programme. Her “Spontaneous Poetry Booth” and “RX for Poetry” have been featured in hospitals and fundraisers in Canada and abroad. She runs workshops and gives talks on poetry, spontaneity, and awareness through writing.

Ronna Bloom, M.ED

Poet in Residence, HAH, University of Toronto

Poet in Community, University of Toronto

www.ronnabloom.com 

Open to all U of T Medical Students, Residents, Physicians and Learners from other disciplines. Register here.

Be Good to Yourself, Whoever You Are: A Writing Workshop for Medical Students, Doctors, Residents and Health Professionals

Be Good to Yourself, Whoever You Are: A Writing Workshop for Medical Students, Doctors, Residents and Health Professionals 🗓

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

Be Good to Yourself, Whoever You Are

A Writing Workshop for Medical Students, Doctors, Residents and Health Professionals

Often in work, and in life, energy moves towards projects and people but there’s little left for your own restoration, especially for those working in health care. In this workshop, through the use of poems and prompts, you will be nudged into writing and reflecting on what sustains you, what you love and what you need. Take this time for yourself as a flicker of possibility of how you might take time for yourself in general.

No experience necessary. Please have a pen and paper, a notebook or whatever you like to write with on hand.

Date and Time:

March 31, 2021

5PM-6:30PM

You will receive a link when you register

Goals

— Learn five rules for writing that can be used to reflect on one’s work, relationships, and life

— Engage directly with poetry as a tool for expressing challenges and discovering resources

— Explore poetry and writing as practices of self-care

Workshop leader:

Ronna Bloom is a poet and teacher. Her most recent book, The More, was published by Pedlar Press in 2017 and long listed for the City of Toronto Book Award. Her poems have been recorded by the CNIB and translated into Spanish, Bangla, and Chinese. She has collaborated with health care professionals, filmmakers, academics, students, spiritual leaders, and architects. A frequent guest in the faculties of Nursing, Medicine, Public Health, as well at teaching hospitals, she brings 25 years of psychotherapy practice to her work as a poet and facilitator.

Ronna developed the first Poet in Residence program at Sinai Health which ran from 2012-2019. She is currently Poet in Community to the University of Toronto and Poet in Residence in the Health, Arts and Humanities Programme. Her “Spontaneous Poetry Booth” and “RX for Poetry” have been featured in hospitals and fundraisers in Canada and abroad. She runs workshops and gives talks on poetry, spontaneity, and awareness through writing. ronna

bloom.com

Open to all U of T Medical Students, Residents, Physicians and Learners from other disciplines. Register here.

Plums in the Icebox

Plums in the Icebox

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

Plums in the Icebox:

A Monthly Creative Writing Workshop for Health Practitioners 

Hosted by :

Shane Neilson MD, PHD  Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct), McMaster University, and Damian Tarnopolsky PhD, Writer-in-Residence, Health, Arts and Humanities Program, University of Toronto

(www.health-humanities.com)

Offered via Zoom. Last Wednesday of the month, 6pm-8pm, January-June 2021

Fee of C$200 for six sessions.

Plums in the Icebox is an ongoing creative writing workshop for health practitioners. Each month we meet via Zoom in a small group to share work, do some writing, give some feedback and -most of all- reconnect with our writing and reading. In between meetings we do more of the same via chat. Led by an acclaimed poet who is a practicing family physician and a novelist and playwright with long experience teaching narrative medicine, Plums in the Icebox is a supportive community for health practitioners looking to deepen and improve their creative and reflective writing. The ethos is craft-based. The approach is collaborative. The style is informal. But the stakes are high.

For more information visit: https://sites.google.com/view/plumsintheicebox

To apply: please send a brief message to the organizers at plumsintheicebox1@gmail.com outlining your interest in the workshop and telling us a little about your writing background and healthcare affiliation. We’ll be in touch shortly. Our first session of the new year is Wednesday January 27th, 6pm-8pm EST. Sorry: scholarships, reduced rates, bursaries, subventions, and the like are not currently available.

Plums in the Icebox
ONLINE 2020 Humanities and Workshop Series

ONLINE 2020 Humanities and Workshop Series 🗓

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

YOU ARE INVITED: OBLIQUITY – Humanities and Medicine Workshop Series

OBLIQUITY was created at the University of Alberta in 2019 with a vision to dissolve the partition between the arts and the sciences while offering participants tools to cope with difficult situations they may endure. For individuals working in the healthcare field, the ability to process intense emotion and difficult situations is an essential skill for individuals working in the healthcare field yet tools to accomplish this feat can at times feel intangible. OBLIQUITY was created to respond to this impasse. We believe that the arts and sciences are two sides of the same coin – one entity with two unique characters. Kahlil Gibran captures this concept of duality best in his poem Of Joy and Sorrow: “Some of your say, ‘Joy is greater than sorrow.’ and others say, ‘Nay, sorrow is the greater.’ But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember the other is asleep upon your bed.”
The theme for this year’s series is INTER/SECTIONS – speakers have been invited to combine two topics that one may not normally associate together (with a focus on the humanities and medicine). Our first workshop will be held on Zoom on September 15, 2020 from 6-8pm MST.
If you would like to participate this year, please visit our website to register (see the link in our email signature). 
 
For ease, here is the direct link to register: https://www.obliquity13.com/2020-program
Please note: there is a separate link specifically for UofA Medical Students. If you are a UofA Medical Student please use this link. If you are not a UofA Medical Student, please use the link titled “External Registration.”
OBLIQUITY – humanities and medicine workshop series
University of Alberta
Writing as Craft in the Time of Covid-19- Some Spots Remain

Writing as Craft in the Time of Covid-19- Some Spots Remain 🗓

Posted on by Allan Peterkin

Writing as Craft in the Time of Covid-19: 

A weekend digital writing retreat for health practitioners 

Led by Damian Tarnopolsky PhD
Health, Arts and Humanities Program, University of Toronto
 
and Shane Neilson MD
McMaster University
 
With special guest speakers
Madhur Anand, author of the acclaimed “memoir-in-halves” This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart 
 
and Ian Williams, winner of the Giller Prize for his novel Reproduction
 
Access via Zoom, August 14-16 2020. Course Fee: $500.00
 
For more information and to register: 
 
About this event: 
 
Learning how to write more expertly gives health practitioners a skill with which to build therapeutic relationships, improve patient outcomes, and live in a more engaged way. Led by expert faculty with long experience in teaching narrative medicine and writing in the health humanities, this virtual retreat offers participants a chance to re-tell the COVID narrative from a place of autonomy.
 
This weekend program will feature a variety of short lectures, workshops, discussions, and reading and writing activities for individuals and groups, designed for their effectiveness at distance and their use for  writers at every level.
 
Special guest sessions led by internationally acclaimed authors Ian Williams and Madhur Anand offer participants a unique opportunity to learn up close from masters of their craft; editorial advice and consultation on publishing opportunities will also be available.
 
We offer a respite from pandemic despair, and an invitation into artistic transformation.
 
Space is limited! For more information and to register, please visit 
 
Questions? Contact the organizers at covidjournals1@gmail.com