Memories to Memoirs: Going Deeper
Date:
4 consecutive Mondays – 3/16, 3/23, 3/30, 4/6
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Program
Description:
Memories of
everything that has ever happened to you are stored in your unconscious. There
are hundreds of stories residing inside you. These stories are your
identity.
In this
series, you will go deeper into your stories as you write each week about
themes that emerge from your own writing.
Using combined
techniques of relaxation, visualization, and Fast Flow Writing™ to
access emotions, sensory memories, and life experiences, Dr. Ballon
will help participants transform their memories into memoirs.
Dr. Ballon
brings a unique expertise as an international writing consultant and longtime
psychotherapist in facilitating self-exploration, self-discovery, and a
powerfully authentic voice in writing.
Each
workshop will involve a combination of listening, writing, sharing, and
receiving feedback. Sharing what one has written is optional. The program
is well-suited for adults and high school students. No writing experience is
necessary.
Location: (Directions and Parking Instructions below)
UnUrban
Coffeehouse
3301 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA
90404
Fee: $50 for series of four sessions. Enrollees must
register for the whole series in order to participate, because individual and
group continuity maximizes the experience. The fee enables us to meet our
costs (space costs have increased) while capping enrollment at 30, so that
participants may have more opportunities to share their work. PARKING IS
FREE.
Enrollment Instructions:
Pre-registration is required. Instructions for
registration online or by mail can be found at www.uclartsandhealing.net/events.aspx.
You can also get instructions for registration by mail by calling
310-452-1439. Checks must be received in order for registration to be complete.
If
the program is full and you attempt to register, the system will automatically
ask you if you would like to be placed on a wait list.
Items to Bring: Paper, pen, and something firm on which to
write. Laptops are permitted, as long as they are quiet.
Presenter(s):
Rachel
Ballon, PhD, MFT
Hailed
"Doc Hollywood" by the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Rachel Ballon is a
licensed psychotherapist and international writers' consultant who specializes
in personal and professional issues experienced by writers, such as fear of
rejection, success, or failure, and procrastination. As Founder and Director of
the Writer's Center, Dr. Ballon teaches and helps thousands of writers connect
with their inner cast of characters and reconnect to their most potent creative
resource - themselves. She brings her expertise in these both fields to her
seminars, workshops and books. Her innovative Fast Flow Writing Method has
enabled clients to write emotionally honest screenplays, novels, plays and
non-fiction. Their works have won awards and many have gone on to become
successful novelists, screenwriters, and writers for children and young adults.
As a marriage
and family therapist in private practice in Westwood for over twenty-six years,
Dr. Ballon has used writing therapy with her clients and has developed specific
techniques to teach mental health professionals how to use writing with
clients, individually and in group settings. She is also a published poet and
poetry therapist who studied with Dr. Arthur Lerner, the founder of the Poetry
Therapy Institute in Los Angeles.
Dr. Ballon
teaches mental health and health care professionals how to use narrative - such
as theme, story structure, transformational arc and resolution - with clients
to help them transform their negative personal stories into happy endings. She
has conducted workshops at UCLA, UC Irvine and CSUN in "The Use of Writing
as an Adjunct in the Counseling Setting," "The Therapeutic Power of
Story" and "Fast Flow Writing to Heal" workshops. Other
workshops at UCLA in the Human Development department have included: "Be
the Hero in Your Career and Life: The Use of Writing for Growth and
Change," "The Personal Journal: Write Your Story, Right Your
Life," "Visibility: Gaining Personal and Professional Recognition,"
and "Creativity, Imagination and Spirit: Unlocking the Blocks."
A master
teacher and noted writing coach, Dr. Ballon has reviewed hundreds of scripts
for major Hollywood studios such as Fox
Entertainment, Fox Family Channel, UPN and Saban Entertainment. A former
Adjunct Professor in scriptwriting at USC School of Cinema and Television,
where some of her students and clients have won awards for their scripts, she
has taught writing to thousands of writers throughout the United States.
She has conducted seminars for UCLA's Writer's Program, the American Film
Institute, the Writer's Guild of America, the Director's Guild of America,
Women in Film, Women in Theater, Northwestern University, and major writing
conferences worldwide.
Dr. Ballon has taught her
screenwriting and story development methods to executives, directors, producers
and writers at RAI-TV in Rome, Italy, where
many were produced in television and feature films. Two of her producers were
nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign short film. She also conducted
workshops on Creativity and Values in Film in Valencia,
Spain.
As a member of the Writer's Guild of America, Dr. Ballon is a scriptwriter with
produced television credits on ABC-TV, and several of her scripts have been
optioned by major studios. She was a writer on an award winning documentary
entitled, "Then Their Were None," and is the author of five
critically acclaimed books, Blueprint for Writing: A Writer's Guide to
Creativity, Craft and Career and The Writer's Sourcebook: From Writing Blocks
to Writing Blockbusters, Breathing Life Into Your Characters, Blueprint for
Screenwriting: A Writer's Guide to Story Structure and Character Development
and The Writers' Portable Therapist: 25 Sessions to a Creativity Cure.
Dr. Ballon is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and
Family Therapists and California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists,
and she conducts "Writing to Heal" workshops throughout Los Angeles.
Directions and Parking Instructions:
The UnUrban
Coffeehouse is cozy, with character. It has coffee, baked goods, and healthy
homemade food (for vegetarians also). And it is affordable. Arrive early or
stay late for supper. Open 7 a.m. until midnight. 310-315-0056
The UnUrban Coffeehouse is
just off the freeway near the 405 Fwy and 10 Fwy interchange. Take the 405
Freeway to 10 West Fwy and Exit on Bundy North. Make an immediate left onto Pico Blvd. The
UnUrban is about 1/2 mile on the right, at the corner of Pico and 33rd Street, across
the street from Trader Joe's. To park, turn left at 33rd and make an immediate
left into the U.S. Bank parking lot. Parking is free and convenient.
Sponsor: UCLArts
and Healing aims to facilitate the use of the arts as a healing tool in the
community via: 1) offering affordable experiential learning opportunities
to health professionals, educators, community workers, caregivers, artists, and
the general public, 2) designing and evaluating programs that can be
implemented broadly in educational and health care settings, and 3) creating
partnerships with academic institutions, educational and health care
institutions, community-based organizations, schools, professional
organizations, and private industry. UCLArts and Healing is an outgrowth
of affiliation between the Arts and Healing Initiative, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit
organization, the Salamander Fund, a nonprofit foundation, and the UCLA
Pediatric Pain Program www.uclartsandhealing.net
UCLArts and Healing is an organizational member of the UCLA
Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine (CCIM), which promotes education
and research in complementary, alternative, and integrative approaches to
health and well-being. The CCIM represents the UCLA academic integrative
medicine community on a national and international level. www.ccim.med.ucla.edu
Future e-mail
notification of UCLArts and Healing events: If you wish to be notified
directly of future UCLArts and Healing events, please click on the link below
to create a profile, where you can indicate that you would like to receive
e-mail notification. Email list recipients will receive priority notification
of events with limited space or advertising. Create Username/Password or
join e-mail list
For More Information:
Please submit questions regarding registration or the program via e-mail: info@uclartsandhealing.net.
Mailing List Removal:
To be removed from this notification list, please reply to this email with the
subject header: PLEASE REMOVE.