Somatic Writing Presents...
AUTHOR LAB
12 Months to Write Your Book, Liberate Your Voice & ReStory the Culture
What opportunities will a published book open up in your life?
Imagine…
The heavy thunk of the large box starts your heart racing with excitement. You thank the delivery person and take a deep, slow breath to soak up the moment, then cut through the packing tape to reveal the treasure inside: a full case of published books. Your published book. You’ve really done it. You pick up a copy and feel the weight and substance of it in your hands knowing that, in this moment, your life is about to change forever.
Imagine you are on a stage, reading from your book to an audience full of people who are inspired by your story and activated by your deep, soulful message.
Imagine knowing how it feels in your nervous system to have accomplished not just your creative or artistic goal, but, as poet laureate Joy Harjo so powerfully describes it, one of your major lifetime tasks: sharing your story as an offering to those who need it most.
Imagine aligning effortlessly with ideal students, clients, and opportunities — without having to spend all your energy on marketing — because your book represents you and your work in the world. Whether you’re a therapist, CEO, working artist, or different kind of change agent, you know you’re making a difference.
Imagine your book as a magical calling card, granting you access into circles with other writers, creators, and global visionaries. People whose work you used to love and admire from the sidelines are now some of your closest friends.
Imagine just how right it will feel to stand in the center of your story, as Brené Brown says, no longer hustling for your worth around the edges.
Imagine not needing to imagine anymore, because you committed to yourself and to your story. You trusted that if you found the right container and showed up to do the work, your book would come to life. And it did.
You can absolutely get there… but it all begins with a first draft.
We can get you from that vision to actually writing your memoir or personal story-based non-fiction book. And if you complete that first draft in a year, we will support you in finding your path to publishing.
Don’t ignore the book inside you that is waiting to be written...
Are you haunted by a deep knowing that something is missing in your life—something central not only to the world, but to your own well being?
Have you always hidden your brilliance? Spent years tamping yourself down, allowing your genius to be relegated to the background? Been afraid to stand boldly in the center of your story and your value as a person?
Do you wake up on birthdays or New Years to a little voice whispering that another year has gone by and you still haven’t written your book?
Can you feel like the spirit of your book speaking to you, nudging or maybe even nagging that this story needs to be told? That you’re playing smaller than you really are? Is it frustrating? Do you understand that the stakes are high for it, too?
And do you know in your bones that a book would radically alter all of this for the better by aligning your public perception with your soul’s purpose and opening the door for you to step into your bigger life?
I’ve been where you are, living with an unrealized dream...
I am a story worker, heart and soul…but I didn’t always dream of becoming an author. My dream (the one that drove me crazy and woke me up, nagging, every morning) was to do a one-person show.
I learned to write so that I could share my story on stage. Which I did! I even received accolades, amazing reviews, and standing ovations. But it wasn’t until I published a book, almost by accident, that my life’s work revealed itself and I was truly seen in the world.
That was twenty years ago, but I would absolutely not be where I am today, offering the work that I do and having supported thousands of people in telling their own stories, without that book having seen the light of day.
Once The Cancer Monologue Project found its readers, I learned just how powerful a personal calling card a book actually is. Although I had written and shared my story onstage in three different original shows, nothing made the kind of impact—on my readers or in my own life—that publishing did.
That’s because it not only showcased my clients, students, and their stories, it also centered my process and revealed something about who I am as a story worker and the work that I do in the world.
I knew the work itself was powerful, but I was shocked by the opportunities that this book opened for me.
First there was the PR.
Yes, I got into Oprah magazine and, yes, I got into NPR and Rosie O'Donnell's magazine, and all the things, but it wasn’t until the publicity hit that I really understood the power that a book was going to give me.
For the first time I was getting offers from organizations all over the country to lead workshops, some of them with six-figure advances. Storytelling organizations, hospitals, wellness centers, visionary conferences like The Bioneers. The reach for my work was suddenly exponentially wider.
And all of this made it possible for me to fully, officially launch my business as a story coach and truly begin the work that I’m still doing to this day.
Enter A Cauldron of Transformation and Creative Completion
The Somatic Writing™ methodology is very unique in its approach. I created it—along with my students and the editors and story coaches on my team, who have vast experience in writing, performance, publishing, editing, and storytelling—as a way to access not only your richest stories, but the deepest aspects of your soul.
In the Story Archeology part of our work together, you’ll use your senses to drop into live, shimmering images, the stories that live in the fire and bones of your body. Archetypal stories, turning-point stories that carry the code of meaning and truth that will make your readers catch their breath and see their own lives in a new way.
In the Story Architecture aspects of the program, you’ll work through a step-by-step program designed specifically to support artists, actors, psychotherapists, coaches, facilitators, teachers, and the many depth-based creative people who are drawn to our community in setting and achieving clear, tangible goals.
You’ll be guided and held in a principled container that makes intentional space for the linear and the nonlinear, the concrete and the liminal, the creative work and the analytical process of crafting your story as an offering to the world.
It’s all about writing at the speed of your nervous system to complete your first draft and prepare for the publishing process.
What You’ll Get
This container of deep support, magical structure, and creative community has been developed to honor the nonlinear processes of exploration and discovery while guiding you with intention toward completing your raw and vulnerable first draft.
You’ll step into your liberated Author’s Voice, discover the meaning and metaphor that connect your most powerful stories, and craft a potent, culturally relevant manuscript that’s ready for the next steps on the path to publication.
Begin with the Goal in Sight
Our self-guided AuthorUp! Program is designed to catalyze your creative process and help you:
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Set your energetic writing container;
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Identify the key narratives to be woven throughout your memoir or hybrid nonfiction book;
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Structure an embodied outline to support you in writing all the way through to completion of a first draft;
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Uncover your true Author Identity and your secret reason for writing this book…which is likely deeper than you consciously know!
Work through these six 90-minute sessions at your own pace and revisit them whenever you’d like to over the course of your year in the Author Lab.
Deepen into the Work
Turn your living outline into a fully realized first draft within the supportive structure of regular classes, workshops for live reader feedback, and accountability sessions, including:
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Somatic Writing Curriculum with full access to curriculum videos, pdfs, and more;
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Prolific Writer Lab Sessions (4x/month) to grow your body of work within creative community;
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Story Archaeology sessions (1x/month) to take you into the creative depths and uncover the stories, themes, and metaphors that make up your unique narrative landscape;
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Author Identity: Writer’s Craft sessions (1x/month) to bring you into engaged relationship with the tools and techniques of writing and introduce exercises for your own experimentation;
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Storyshare Workshop sessions (2x/month) to offer and receive constructive feedback on your written work from a Somatic Writing coach and your community of fellow writers;
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New Moon Visioning sessions (1x/month) to bring crystal clarity and hold yourself accountable to your goals and intentions using a simple but potent magical technique called the Author’s Black Book;
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Full Moon Accountability sessions (1x/month) with a guest astrologer;
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All Day Writing Retreat (1 6-hr session/month) to help you drop into concentrated flow in the company of other writers who are committed to the same depth, vulnerability, and transformation that you are.
Plus 24 one-on-one sessions with your Somatic Writing Story Coach to support you in creating your outline, pacing and accountability during the writing process, overcoming resistance, and writing through to completion of your first draft.
As Above, So Below. As Within, So Without.
Writing a book will likely be one of the most significant and meaningful experiences of your life. At Somatic Writing™, our purpose is to support you in writing not just any book, but one that is born from your soul to connect powerfully with the audience that needs it. A book not as an object, but a living gift with a spirit in its own right.
The work that you’ll experience in this container is nothing short of magic.
In active relationship with the spirit of the book that lives inside of you, you’ll alchemize your lived truth into a powerful offering in story form. As you fulfill the deep soul contract to complete this work, you will also be actively shifting the energy in your life, making space for whole new possibilities to present themselves.
Once the book is published the magic continues, calling external reality into alignment with your newly claimed agency, authority, and identity. The path is different, of course, for each author and each book, but our clients have been thrilled to report experiences like:
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Generating more income;
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Making new, more soul-centered connections with other leaders and changemakers in your industry;
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Receiving opportunities for visibility, like speaking engagements, interviews, and more – so that you can share your soulful messages with the world, grow your audience, and inspire more people;
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Standing in the deeper stories of your own life with artistry;
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Celebrating the fulfillment of your life’s dream – knowing that because you took this one year to write your story, you can now carry your book with you for the rest of your life.
But the greatest magic of all might be seeing how your story will shift, inspire, and activate the lives of others.
Is Author Lab for Me?
At Somatic Writing, we’re devoted to supporting powerful, culture-shifting stories. We’ve designed Author Lab to be a crucible in which the books most needed in this time can be brought artfully and intentionally to life.
Our students share in this vision, whether they’ve published in the past or are just beginning their very first book. Not only are they inspired to offer their personal stories as a medium for meaningful change, they are also:
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Dedicated to a regular writing practice;
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Aligned with our values of inclusion, anti-racism, decolonization, and liberation for all;
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Willing to do the tough inner work of dismantling systemic oppression necessary to make their books relevant in our culture;.
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Far enough along in their personal healing journeys to write from a grounded, self-empowered place;
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Well-resourced, however they interpret that for themselves, with a solid support system in place so that, if trauma does get triggered in the course of this deep work, they know they won’t be harmed.
If this speaks to who you are–as a person, a creator, and at the heart of your author’s identity–we would be honored to welcome you into our container.
Why 12 Months?
Writing your book is a soul retrieval. It is one of the most meaningful processes you’ll go through in your life. Writing a book with depth and purpose requires time and space.
There are charlatans trying to sell the book writing process as quick and easy, with promises to “write your book with AI” or “write your book in 3 months.” This completely bypasses the most meaningful, impactful, and important components of the writing process. The result is a poor quality book that fails to impact your readers or shift the cultural conversation.
Author Lab is a 12 month container because our clients don’t want a product, they want a legacy. We will guide you through a truly transformative and artistic process, so that your book becomes an initiatory experience for you and your reader.
Writing a book that liberates your voice is a painful process. It involves calling back parts of yourself that you have exiled, giving space to the marginalized voices within yourself. You will write into shame and grief to retrieve a powerful story that your audience will remember for the rest of their lives.
When you wrestle with the spirit of your book, you will become the leader you want to be. Your life will become bigger, and you will expand on every level.
We created Author Lab with the intention of holding you throughout this sacred process. We prioritize your experience with trauma-informed teachings, and we help you to address doubt and resistance when they inevitably arise.
Our team will support you in…
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Overcoming resistance with the support of Resistance Coaches who will give you magical and practical tools to actually write your book
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Becoming a better writer with MFA-level seminars on craft & technique given by professional lecturers
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Stepping into relevant leadership with guidance on stepping up in your industry to elevate the conversation and center your work
There are people who receive an MFA from top universities and still aren’t able to finish a book, because they don’t know how to marry craft and technique with the energetics of completing a book. Author Lab is the only container of its kind that does both, and this is a process that takes time.
Do you want to get your book done as fast as possible to create a product on a shelf? Or do you want to travel through an initiatory experience that will help you build your legacy and become a relevant leader in your space?
If you feel called to the ladder, then Author Lab is for you.
Your Story. Your Book. One Life-Changing Year.
If you know deep-down that you have a story that needs to be told...
If you’re tired of abandoning your projects and your dreams, or if you’ve published before but want to write your next book in a different, more aligned and authentic way….
If you’re finally ready to claim your Author’s Voice, write the book that’s burning inside you, and step into a bigger version of your life than you’ve dared to live before…
Author Lab was created for you.
Join us in a magical container, where you’ll make meaning of your life’s experiences and turn your story into an offering to the world. You’ll be nurtured as a writer, challenged to delve deeper, and guided every step of the way toward completion of your first draft over the course of one intense and intentional year.
If this invitation stirs something in you that’s been aching to be expressed for longer than you can remember, the choice is yours: This time…what if you say yes?
Courtney Reed-Marsh
Guest Somatic Teacher
Trained as a fiction writer, with a deep love of myth and a publishing industry background in personal story-based nonfiction, I thrive in the liminal spaces where well honed craft comes together with image and metaphor, lived experience and collective knowing to bring great storytelling to life.
Debra Rosenman
Somatic Story Coach
Beautifully entangled with nature and spirit, Debra traverses the wild terrain of soul as a writer, book/story midwife, developmental editor, grief-tender/ritualist, Somatic Archaeologist and the author/editor/designer of The Chimpanzee Chronicles: Stories of Heartbreak and Hope from Behind the Bars. Her book has garnered 15 national awards for best narrative nonfiction, best new nonfiction, best anthology and best animal/nature book.
Melissa Kaplan,
Author & Somatic Therapist
"My life has changed, but I have really become more authentically who I was meant to be in this lifetime.”
"There was so much unlearning that I needed to go through. There was a total coming undone process in my own journey.”
“If we don’t speak our unspeakable story, it’s doomed to repeat itself.”
Marta Aarli,
Psychotherapist and Dreamworker
"You can write a book from an intellectual place, but I love the deep, personal searching and the depth of the Memoir Lab and the spiritual, the somatic, the emotional aspect of this, as well as the classes which are such an intellectual learning and technique and structure, which I had never studied writing before. So that was amazing. But then it took me into this deep, deep process. The book that I'm writing brings all of those elements into the material, which is just a perfect balance for me as a writer, as a person. That's what I want to write. That's how I work with people, and that's what I want this book to bring to my readers."
Charissa Pizarro,
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
"In Somatic Writing, we alway start with deep breathing. And in those experiences, when we're connecting to our inner selves, I had, I wouldn't call them visions, but I've seen things that I also needed to work through. I clearly have ancestors who were slaves, and that's probably not that may generations removed. And my work with Melissa (SOmatic Writing's in-house Core Energetics practitioner) has been very, very deep. We've been working for probably seven months. Ive come to the other side now. And I've also connected with myself and my culture so much more deeply."
Mary Suzanne Garvey,
Painter and Author
“The confidence I have now is from our Lab…. I was able to really find my voice and develop confidence.”
“Writing some of the chapters that I’m not sure I’m going to publish, and writing pieces in the Story Archeology class, made me a better writer… you don’t have time to think, and you go right into the deep waters.”
“I gathered so much power and steam from the Lab, and I am really so grateful to have had that kind of support.”
"I started working with Tanya and her team, with a goal of writing the first chapter only, telling myself it didn’t need to be good and that I only needed to write my story for ME (in other words, take off the pressure of who will like this book?).
Well…it was such a powerful experience that now, a year later, I’ve written over 80,000 words (!?!) and have almost completed the first draft of my book - all about my individuation journey from my mother and the generational trauma in my matrilineal bloodline.
But it’s not just that I’ve written a memoir - I’ve undergone a profound, transformative experience whereby I’ve connected the dots even more than I ever had before on the threads of my life, whereby I’ve found parts of myself that I never knew even existed, whereby I’ve made peace with experiences in my life that I never thought I’d make peace with, and whereby I’ve crafted a work of art (yes, I’m going to brag and say this book is a work of art!) that I feel so proud of.
It is a story about what it means to be a daughter, about what it means to be a mother, about what it means to be a Jewish Ashkenazi woman with Holocaust trauma in your bones, about what is means to be “good” or “bad”...and how to reclaim all the parts of yourself.
And I absolutely would not have been able to do this without Tanya and her team."
hey know their craft well, and are brilliant and deeply supportive and they SEE you."
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Joanna Lindenbaum
Coach, Writer, CEO Applied Depth Institute
"I joined Somatic Writing in September 2022 as part of the 6-week Author Up! Group and then moved into Memoir Lab. Now, at the beginning of 2024, I am on the cusp of completing my first draft. In the process, I learned how to organize my many thoughts and stories; I learned how to build an outline; I learned how to structure the story as a whole. But what I did not realize I would learn was…how to connect with me.
From the beginning, Tanya, my coach Debra, the various teachers and guest speakers, and my writing cohort held me in a sacred circle of love, support and challenge. Collectively, in that container, through guided writing exercises and one-on-one sessions, I was pushed to go from the surface to the underneath. And then even further below that. When I wanted to cut the process short and quit, I was lovingly invited to keep going. And then I was invited to start over. That’s because, through this group, I cracked open. In this safe space, I found the courage to tell the stories I thought I would take to my grave. With their full support at my back and their cheerleading on my side, I wrote myself into myself. I healed decades and generations of trauma.
The words on the page are now the full truth about me. The truth about my power. The truth about my voice. And that is a gift I cannot ever repay to any of them. And they do not expect me to. All anyone at Somatic Writing wants for me is to finish my first draft; to allow it to be the best possible draft it can be; to heal; to grow; and to pass it on to the next person. And that is a truly radical and liberated approach. Somatic Writing reflects, indeed, the principles of inclusion and diversity—of voices, of people. It is a powerful and magical space that once I entered into it, it was impossible for me to emerge unchanged. That’s why today, I am a writer.
In particular, I want to thank Debra for holding my hand—because of her, I am giving birth not only to my story but also to me."
Hella Rader
Writer
For those of you who are still to be initiated into the potent healing magic of Somatic Writing's Memoir Lab, I want to warn you of a few things, before you step into this cauldron/crucible/sanctuary.
The Somatic Writing team are actually part healers, part shamans, and part good witches, cleverly disguised as writing mentors and coaches. Be sure you know what you are getting into before you put your money down.
Writing a memoir, or narrative nonfiction, is not for the faint of heart. Coming closer and closer to the real living energy of your life, the life that lives and breathes underneath and through the twists and turns of your story, will undo you.
ou will be unravelled and forever changed, and you will not be able to go back to who you were before you began this journey. Your views and beliefs and perspectives will be turned upside down and inside out, and you'll find that the story of your life is recreating you, as you wrestle with it, through the days and nights of this Lab.
You will also be undone by the profound kindness, care and wisdom that reveals itself in Somatic Writing, and by your fellow writers and travellers in the Lab. They will offer you a kind of love and compassion which will seem unreasonable and unfathomable at times.
Shayla Wright
Founder, Wide Awake Heart, Spiritual Mentor
"There are no words to express my depth of appreciation for Tanya's guidance. Nothing else compares to her method for uncovering the story your body and soul are longing to express: it is potent medicine and an answer to prayers!
The market is glutted with *experts* who promise to help you write your book in 90 days- no 6 weeks...wait, scratch that: how about 24 hours with AI? Tanya is the soul midwife and loving accountability coach for those of us who have a divergent path. Who are outliers, called to challenge prevailing power structures who do not fit in a cookie cutter mold. And who are willing to dig deep to find the story that will liberate ourselves and others.
Tanya possesses a gift of deep insight. She truly sees you. Her witness has been invaluable. It's given me the courage to embark upon a radical journey of self-discovery and re-membering; to become the person who could actually tell my story in all of its beauty, pain and glory.
Before Somatic Writing, I knew I had a book inside of me, nascent. For years, people said: "You've got to write a book." In the early aughts, I was approached by literary agents and offered a deal. That book, which I began, was never completed. I didn't understand why until meeting Tanya. It's because there is healing, permission, and deep hand holding. I needed to wade through my own hidden judgments to arrive at my author's voice and soul story.
I'm also deeply appreciative of Debra, my book coach, who has provided ongoing support, structure, and compassionate inquiry during the writing process. She's a gem!
Somatic Writing has been a true blessing in my life. Without it, my book, which introduces a *new* heroine's journey to women across the world, would not have happened."
Dena Crowder
TEDX Speaker, Power Catalyst for Leaders, and High Performance Coach
"To say that Somatic Writing with Tanya Rubinstein changed my life for the absolute better would be an understatement and I feel like I’ve only just begun. The support and connection I felt in class allowed me to write the cavernous depths of my story with guts and great pleasure. There were tears but also lots of laughter. Being a graduate of a somatic therapy practice in 2018, I was familiar with body-based psychotherapy but for this model to be used as a conduit for a creative writing practice, it turned out to be just what I needed to dive all the way into my stories and allow myself to get all the way wet with feeling. It was not without stalls and resistance, however, the soft holding done by Tanya to keep going propelled me to continue and finish my first draft even after the class had officially ended. I am happy to say that I am now signed to a literary agency in New York City and am scheduled to go out to publishers early 2024. Above all, I have written a book and can now say that I’m a literary writer which ain’t too shabby".
Haneefah Wood
Actor, Writer, Somatic Therapist
The process of Somatic Writing is a gift that will help you find the deepest truth, then hold your feet to the fire until you tell it to the best of your ability. Being in the Somatic Writing group takes the isolation out of being a writer and also out of the past I’m writing about, in which I had felt so alone. It helped me find the voice I lost as a child and gave it the space to develop now.
Diana Lightmoon
Psychotherapist & Writer
I have been coached and trained by over 50 writers across the world, some with huge international recognition, and not one has ever opened me to myself the way the Somatic Writing process does. Tanya is a powerful guide through the chaotic and often painful journey of writing and discovery. If you've decided to write directly toward the truth no matter where it goes and you've found it challenging, lonely or scary... this is the answer. If you are a writer or aspiring to be, and you want a safe and powerful container to find your voice in writing, I can't recommend Somatic Writing enough.
Andrya Allen
Founder of Vox Verba & writer
