With Audra Carmine
Five Fridays, September 11th to October 9th, 2026
10 am to 11:30 am
Fields of Alchemy
Mirror Studio (Suite 400)
917 SW Oak Street
Portland, OR 97205
Series Cost: $360
What is truer than the truth? The story. ~ Jewish Proverb
“I came into this experience without the tools or the confidence I needed to discover, expound, explore, notice, sit patient, or write with fresh intention. The collective magic that Audra facilitated, summoned, invited into the space allowed me to safely engage and belong. Carried by that collective magic, I was writing in completely fresh ways, found expression I didn't know I was capable of, and was buoyed by the comfort of a shared experience. Now, I carry a toolbox of word-forward ideas and experience that has forever changed how I write, when I write, what I write, and how I think about writing. And I won't neglect to mention I discovered some of my inner world in the process. I hold so much gratitude for Audra creating this space - alchemical, magical, living. If you're thinking about signing up, don't overthink it and Write Yourself Free.”
~Write Yourself Free Participant
Writing has long been a practice that supports truth-telling, insight, courage, capacity, and connection. It’s a place where what lies below the surface of awareness can emerge as insight and often meaningful change. In this workshop, open to women and non-binary-identifying people, we will add a layer of group process and meditation in which listening and being seen set us up to live freely and wholeheartedly. Writing, mindfulness, and group therapeutic experiences are all supported by clinical research as tools through which we can gain strength and steadiness through which to meet our days. Let’s gather together and see what’s possible. As Anton Chekhov says, “Art prepares us for tenderness.”
In my writing practice, I find myself confronting what is true versus what might be the more palatable performance of truth. The question- am I really allowed to say this? comes up all the time. Writing pushes me to wonder about whose voice that is. Who is that voice protecting and why? And, when I am brave enough to say the thing, to write what’s real, I set myself free.
“Writing is a form of freedom more accessible than many and there are forces at work that would like to withhold it from those whose stories most threaten the regimes that govern this society. Fuck them. Write your life."
― Melissa Febos, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative
There has been no meditation or compassion practice more potent than writing the most awful, awkward, and wonderful truths. I learn by writing. I use my secrets to make something beautiful. I create a home for myself through writing. I see my own patterns and judgment rise up again and again so that I can place my flawed humanity in the family of things and call myself whole. I watch as the way in which I tell the story ebbs and flows like an ocean, opening my heart and mind to something that simply wasn’t there before, something new. There is no more potent—or accessible—medium through which to meet each other. Let’s write together as a form of resistance, as an act of courage, and as a way to practice listening and being witnessed.
Series Cost: $360
To sign up: https://www.audracarmine.com/store/p/write-yourself-free-in-person
