- Event Date: 01/10/2025
Fire Your Wild Imagination: 5 day Portugal depth writing retreat, October 1st – 5th
Event Details
- 14:00
- Monte da Japonica, Alentejo, Portugal
- From £495
Event Description
We are all born with a wild imagination. It is through this unlimited creative resource that we can access the unconscious, connect with our intuition, develop a greater degree of self-awareness and expand our sense of possibility. Fire Your Wild Imagination will be a chance to explore this vast inner superpower through a holistic practice underpinned by Jungian psychology, creative writing and journaling designed to facilitate creativity, foster self-discovery & facilitate transformative growth with the gentle guidance of Dr Rachel.
Fire Your Wild Imagination will include daily depth writing workshops focused on cultivating creativity through attuning to your curious inner child, your wise inner sage and the wisdom of nature. The retreat will take place at the rustic and charming historic family home of Monte da Japonica and its surrounding cork woods.
The retreat is for writers, creative & therapeutic practitioners, seekers, inner explorers and those on a journey of self-discovery who are curious about how writing & imagination can be used to support transformative growth and would like to dive deeper. The focus of the retreat will be on process, rather than outcome, and on what comes up in the writing, rather than craft and you’ll be invited to work with the material at a level that feels right for you. For those who have a writing or other creative practice, depth-writing can be used as an adjacent activity to support, deepen and expand your projects. Wherever you are at, this retreat is a chance to fire the creative, healing superpower of the wild imagination that courses through all of us.
Cost: single & shared rooms from £495 (For individual room costs, send me an email)
Deposit: £125
About Rachel
Rachel Newsome, PhD, is an independent writer, teacher and creative guide with twenty years of experience as a former lecturer in Higher Education. She holds a Jungian arts-based doctorate in Creative Writing and delivers a programme of depth writing offerings aimed at supporting transformational growth in others. She is Co-Editor of forthcoming Routledge publication ‘The Creative Psyche: Between Matter & Spirit’ and is regular speaker for the UK public education platform Seed Talks. She is author of Depth Writing with Dr Rachel on Substack and serves on the London Arts-Based Research Centre editorial team.
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In this two-hour workshop you will explore a simple but effective 5-step transformational journaling process underpinned by research at the intersection of neuroscience and expressive writing aimed at fostering cognitive flexibility and a greater degree of self-awareness.
The workshop will include a series of short writing exercises of between approximately 5-15 minutes and small group discussions designed to help you develop creative tools for navigating challenging situations. You’ll also receive a recording following the event along with the presentation slides and a list of resources. (N.B. Only the taught part of the workshop will be recorded).
This workshop is for both beginners and those with a journalling practice alike who are interested in exploring how journaling can be a form of self-directed neuroplasticity in support of transformational growth as well as therapeutic practitioners interested in expanding their range.
For this workshop you’ll need a quiet space to write and materials to write with. As the workshop will focus on outcome rather than process, no previous writing experience is necessary and there will be no pressure to read anything out (although you can if you wish). You’ll be invited to take responsibility for your experience by going at your own pace and working with the material at a level that feels right for you.
Here’s what some recent participants have said about their workshop experience:
‘I really enjoyed Rachel’s workshop. Rachel has so much enthusiasm. I really enjoyed the exercises that we did and what I gained from it.’
‘I really enjoyed the workshop and had an interesting process. Then I had a deep sleep and a very vivid dream in which I felt able to touch in with some unresolved grief. Quite unexpected and very welcome and I wanted to share that with you and say thank you.’
‘I enjoyed the workshop and felt it was very helpful in navigating a challenging situation.’
‘I went to a really powerful introductory workshop on Transformative Journalling led by the generous Dr Rachel Newsome. As part of the workshop, Rachel invited us to enter a dialogue with our ‘inner wise elder’ and I found this exercise so powerful – connecting with this notion of my ancestral wisdom really enabled me to offer validation to myself on something I’d been really struggling with and had previously looked for external validation on.’
About Dr Rachel Newsome
I’m a Dr of depth writing & creative guide with a Jungian arts-based PhD in creative writing based in a former mill town nestled in the West Yorkshire moors.In past lives I’ve been a journalist, an editor of arts & culture magazine Dazed & Confused and a lecturer in the creative arts, respectively. I now run a programme of depth-writing workshops, courses and retreats grounded in Jungian psychology and cognitive neuroscience aimed at inspiring the creative self in everyone. I’m a Seed Talks expert speaker, serve on the Editorial Board at the London Arts Based Research Centre and am co-Editor of forthcoming Routledge publication, The Creative Psyche: Between Self & Spirit.
A cosy, candle-lit evening of transformational writing, downstairs At The Chapel. I’ve been curating gentle but powerful writing techniques and exercises since completing doctoral studies in Creative Writing, and then practitioner training in the psychotherapy, Focusing.
Neuroscience is catching up with what writers and thinkers have always known: that writing is good for us. It calms the anxious mind, finds meaning when a personal or global narrative might seem senseless, and restores the balance of inner and outer.
Places are limited and these workshops can fill up quickly. Please email me to book and I will provide payment details.
Join us for an evening of Indian classical music paired with reflective writing prompts on the theme of joyful living. Bring a mat, blanket, pen and paper.