Co-Dependencies: On Healing, Remembering, Breathing & Writing Trauma
April 30 – May 27, 2023
(Synchronous Zoom sessions Mondays 5/1, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22)
Note: This workshop has sold out every time I’ve offered it. This is the last time that I will be offering this as I move on to different collaborations & offerings.
“What really exists is not things made but things in the making.” –William James
“How other kinds of beings see us matters. That other kinds of beings see us changes things.” –Eduardo Kohn
On han: “A feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one’s guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrong—all these combined.” –Suh Nam-dong
“Death needs a new cosmology. Death is not a black hole where things cease to be. If you want to live well, keep death close. Hope includes hopelessness and grieving is showing gratitude for that which has been lost. What would it be like to treat grief as power? Even our hopelessness as a form of decomposing and falling away that is sacred.” –Bayo Akomolafe
“The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. It is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature.” –Thich Nhat Hanh
How are the frames of reference and relationships between and of living beings activated? That is, how do different bodies and worlds articulate each other, or, how do we learn to be affected? How do we reconcile personal experience with historical fact? How do we reconcile history with memory? How do we reconcile truths with other truths? How does writing open up space while processing trauma or grief?
This four-week online workshop will begin with the unique emotional identity and Korean concept of han and its relationship to concepts of inherited trauma, looking closely at the relationship of cultural history & identity and aesthetics & narrative and exploring how the presence of unresolved corporeal history and the impossibility of articulation or expression leads to new encounters in language and narrative.
Through this generative and healing-focused workshop, we will use writing prompts, guided meditations, intuition exercises, personal medicine work, shamanic practices, divination, mapping, unbinding wounds & trauma, communing with plant and animal beings, and ceremony to explore the articulation of experience and trauma (lived and inherited). We will explore texts from all genres and work directly on developing a personal healing and writing practice while exploring lived/embodied experience, the body as both a compromised site and as a site for resistance, and connections to thinking about healing from other lineages, including plant & animal medicine, Buddhism, Korean folk ritual, and different lineages of shamanism. There will be optional opportunities for peer feedback.
Workshop Structure:
In order to accommodate both synchronous and asynchronous modes, the majority of the work will be asynchronous and can be self-paced for each week (ie. readings, writing prompts, exercises, discussions). There will be 4 synchronous meetings (via Zoom). The 4 sessions will be Mondays from 11AM-1:30PM PST: 5/1, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22). Though attendance at these meetings is highly encouraged, it is not mandatory. All meetings will be recorded and posted the next day, for those who are unable to make part or all of the meeting times, with guided instructions on any activities/exercises covered during the meetings to be posted online. As well, there is an optional opportunity to have a one 1-on-1 conference with Janice during the 4-week period, plus optional group office hours sessions for further connection and support.
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Pricing:
The following payment model is inspired by and borrowed from the payment model of Bayo Akomolafe’s class, We Will Dance With Mountains: Into the Cracks.
This course offers two sliding scales based on your relative financial standing. The huge range listed below is meant to reflect the incredible disparity in economic conditions of people living in different parts of the world, and also the historical reality of stolen wealth in many different forms, generally from the so-called Global South to the North. In an effort to reflect disparity in economic condition and access to wealth, the following payment system is designed for those with more wealth to help cover the costs of those with less access to wealth and resources. We trust your discernment of how your current financial situation and how you fit into the global economic context.
As you decide what amount to pay, please consider your present-day financial situation governed by income, but also the following factors: historical discrimination faced by your peoples; your financial wealth (retirement/savings/investments); your access to income and financial wealth, both current and anticipated (how easily could you earn more income compared to other people in your community, country, and the world); people counting on your financial livelihood including dependents and community members; the socio-economic conditions of your locale (relative to other places in your country and in the world); your relationship to food & resource scarcity.
For people with medium to high access to wealth in the global context, are generally considered middle or upper class in the Global North, own land or property, have investments or retirement savings, are expecting an inheritance, can travel internationally for pleasure, and/or enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.
$600 Partner I
$480 Supporter I
$410 Companion I (Note: This amount reflects the “real” value of this course.)
$300 Friend I
For people with lower access to wealth in the global context, are systematically disadvantaged and living in the Global South, are poor/working class in the Global North, belong to a historically disenfranchised group, don’t have access to savings, are living paycheck to paycheck or relying on government or other aid, and/or have anxiety regularly about having access to food, resources, or shelter.
$250 Partner II
$150 Supporter II
$60 Friend II
Scholarships are also still available for BIPOC and anyone needing further financial assistance. Please email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com for more info, or if you are feeling challenged in any way by the financial requirements of participation.
Testimonials:
Janice’s class was transformative for me on all the levels: creative, psychic, literary, healing. The readings and viewings were robust and inspiring. Because of Janice, I am now actively seeking to communicate with more of the plants around me, even the smallest ones in the cracks in the sidewalk, because this transforms the world into a place of magic and possibility, even in the midst of political turmoil and global pandemic.
– CH
I loved this course with Janice and highly recommend it. The combination of instruction, writing prompts, readings and shamanic healing practices were both inspiring and beneficial. I was often surprised by the doors it opened in my writing process and am grateful for the expansion of my worldview. Kudos Janice on an amazing holding of space to allow vulnerability to transform into healing. It was a very rich and transformative experience.
– EE
It was so wonderful to work with Janice. I would do so again in a heartbeat. She held the online space with care and attentiveness, she was warm, and she was focused. I loved how clear she was that the purpose of the workshop space was the process itself and not any particular kind of product or experience… Janice Lee’s Co-Dependencies was the sacred writing space that I needed to close out 2020. The ritual elements of the workshop opened up pathways to releasing accumulated griefs, and the meditations brought me to new understandings of myself. The space she created for vulnerable dialogues and connections was something that I haven’t experienced in any other writing class.
– JW
If you’re ready for deep self-reflection, deep imagination, deep connection, and deep care, work with Janice. The resources she shares on all levels — literary, organizational, creative, interpersonal, and spiritual — are designed to allow those who work with her to define our own path(s) in her company. Janice’s courses are radical autonomous pedagogy in action. Janice Lee’s Co-Dependencies class took my heart further into empathy. Thank you so much for this experience into my own underworld, lineage and present power. I feel unlocked by it.
– KK
Janice is a generous and compassionate instructor. I would never call this class a writing workshop (even though I got some GREAT writing out of it)–it is much more like a journey. Janice deftly leads you into places where you are tender, hurt, or grieving so that you can witness, map, and maybe! Even begin to heal. She makes ample and supportive room for all kinds of writers and her prompts and materials are thoughtful, thought-provoking, and offer new ways of contextualizing one’s own sorrow. If I could, I’d take this class every spring, to be led out of the winter darkness and into the light of possibilities!
– C
Co-Dependencies taught by Janice Lee is groundbreaking. She challenges the notion of what it means to take a writing course and to be a writer by introducing gentle healing practices that bring you closer to your heart and soul. Everyone benefits from her approach, no matter where you situate yourself on the woo-woo scale. I have been waiting for this my whole life (and I’m old!). Thank you Janice Lee and all the folks at Corporeal Writing for helping writers of all stripes learn what it means to be embodied and integrated (as much as possible) when putting words together.
– BW