In my latest chapter in a book called “Meaningful Journeys” edited it by Alec Grant and Elizabeth Lloyd-Parkes, I write that, “I’m a spiritually inclined agnostic”. For an academic, this is a little like coming out of the closet. I was raised with secular critical thinking, religious art appreciation, and sent to Catholic …
My book “Writing the Self in Bereavement” has won the BEST BOOK AWARD for Ethnography. This was announced on June 10th, 2021. It is the H.L. “Bud” Goodall, Jr./Nick Trujillo “It’s a Way of Life” Award” This award is based on a work that “exemplifies excellence in storytelling informed by scholarship and intended for both …
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The book “Happy” is ready to share. Get in touch if you want to know more. Here is a snippet: The idea of Happy is to write poems and reflections that will inspire others to heal and write, or write and heal. The order doesn’t really matter. The reason for Happy’s combination of poem and …
Career Writing is a narrative career-learning method where a facilitator or career counsellor uses creative, expressive and reflective writing exercises to assist students and clients in developing a career identity. Career identity is defined in this context as the story that gives meaning and purpose to one’s life and points to direction in which one would …
Another piece of the book “Happy: poems and reflections for writing and healing the self” which will be out this fall… You are not who you think you are Research on writing and healing and family systems therapy reveals that secrets clog up our working memory. They can even make us sick. What is inherent …
Our latest work endeavours took us to the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu and to Helsinki. In Joensuu, Frans and I met with a career-research team and gave workshops on career writing and why career dialogues are not as easy as they seem. We also gave two lectures. Our colleagues said they got more …
What is career writing? by D.B. Stewart Mere weeks before he died, Dr. Oliver Sacks (2015) wrote a short memoir entitled Gratitude. Sacks reflected on working with the chronic care patients who inspired his book Awakenings (and the award-winning film): “I was fascinated by my patients there, cared for them deeply, and felt something of a mission …
Is writing the self speaking our vulnerability in order to become empowered? In reflecting on the book “A vulnerable teacher” (1974) by composition teacher Ken Macrorie (1918-2009), I realized I perceive and sense vulnerability to be something different than he does. After explaining that vulnerable comes from “vuln” the Latin word for “wound”, he writes that “To become …
Career self-portrait, inspired by Agatha Christie a writing exercise to try “The name of Lucy Eyelesbarrow had already made itself felt in certain circles…” (A. Christie, 1957) In fiction we sometimes come across a character who is wildly interesting, confident, and in full possession of themselves. Something in us gets excited because secretly …