Hollyhock Retreat Center, Cortes Island, British Columbia
An Ecology of Creative Practice
a 5-day retreat
June 27-July 2, 2027
What if you didn’t have to wait for inspiration to connect to your deepest urge to create?
Sense Writing merges somatic principles with the art of writing to help you tap into the rich landscape of your stories, memories, and imagination — whether you already think of yourself as a writer or simply want support to bring your whole self into a creative project.
Developed by Madelyn Kent, Sense Writing teaches students of all levels how to work with the body and nervous system to develop a writing practice full of trust, possibility, and resilience.
In this workshop, you’ll learn to use foundational neuroplastic techniques and time-tested sequences to increase your capacity to regulate your nervous system, access your internal landscape, enhance sensation, and discover creative flow.
We all recognize that feeling of connection when we sit down to write and the words seem to emerge organically. But it can often feel like magic, not something we know how to replicate or create for ourselves. Instead of waiting for the seed of an idea to sprout or fighting with a blank page, in this workshop you’ll discover potent strategies to access the rich terrain of sensation, imagination, and story — and grow your own sustainable creative practice.
Who This Program is For
Both beginner and experienced writers
Anyone feeling the urge to write
Anyone who’s sensed the connection between their own bodies and creative flow
What You’ll Experience
Creating through pleasure, curiosity, and play
The ease of starting from where you are no matter…
A place before language where you can return, before thought, before all the stories that we tell ourselves.
Gentle guided somatic sequences based on Feldenkrais to bring you into more regulated states
Writing sequences with greater access to internal landscapes of memory, imagination, and story
What You’ll Learn
Discover the connection between movement, thought, and imagination.
Experience Sense Writing's time-tested neurosensory sequences and principles to bypass anxiety and dissolve creative blocks.
Identify the inherent structures emerging within your writing.
Learn the "three steps for getting started with any story."
Explore how the nervous system can be harnessed to intentionally access a state of creative flow and build writing rituals that stick.
Schedule and Registration
Program begins: June 27, 2027 6:30pm
Program ends: July 2, 2027 1:30pm
