The Somatic Memoir Lab is here to help you finally write it.
Your soul has been longing to write a memoir.
Dear Soulful Visionary,
I see you. You’ve done amazing things in the world.
You are a leader, an artist, a change maker.
You are a born teacher - and you’ve used it for good.
You fought hard for your good fortune - and you made it.
You have deep friendships, a loving family and an honest relationship with yourself and others.
You have the health, joy and success you longed for. Experiences that blew your mind.
Yet, there’s a creative part of you that you haven’t expressed.
The storyteller. The poet. The artist. The mystic. The healer.
She remains hidden away.
The truth is: it never felt safe for you to express her genius - to unleash her wild, creative soul.
Even with all the privileges that come with success - you felt marginalized your entire life.
Marginalized for your sensitivity, your brilliance, your intuition.
Marginalized for having a soul that shines a little too bright.
Marginalized for your fiery heart, expansive vision, childlike tenderness.
You always knew you were different.
You felt more deeply.
You knew things - without knowing how you know them.
You got consumed by topics that interested you - and you couldn’t stop yourself from going deeper and deeper.
You felt like you were “too much” for the world - yet “not enough” for what your soul longs to create in this world.
I see you. I feel you. I am you.
And I also know - there’s a story within you.
A story only you can tell.
A story that is as ancient as time itself - longing to be expressed in a new way.
A story that truly matters - for people, for culture, for the world.
It’s my life’s mission
to help you write that story.
Hey, I am Tanya Taylor Rubinstein...
...and I’m obsessed with telling the stories that truly matter.
I started off my career as an actor when I was 20 - and soon after, I met my mentor (late) Spalding Gray, a famous solo performer. He had broken away from traditional acting to tell the taboo stories through his solo performances - stories that people didn’t have the permission to tell back in the day.
His performances liberated me after growing up in a conventional upper middle class family from the Washington DC area.
Throughout my childhood, my family conveyed to me that I couldn’t express any emotions or tell stories about anything that mattered.
Meeting my mentor finally gave me the permission to tell my own taboo stories - and inspired me to help other people do the same.
Over the last 3 decades - I’ve been on the quest to master the art of storytelling - and helping people liberate the stories that truly matter.
This journey has been wild, to say the least.
I left the East Coast and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico - based on pure intuition.
I travelled to India to meet a guru in Lucknow who I thought was going to give me enlightenment. I almost died instead, became disillusioned, and returned to my own art form of story.
I wrote + performed my first one-woman show called Honeymoon in India (which became one of the top shows of the year in New Mexico).
I have helped my students write + perform over 50 shows - featuring important stories from:
✦ Patients with Cancer, HIV-AIDS and Mental Health Conditions (and their family members)
✦ Young Palestinian and Israeli women about war + peace
✦ Veterans with PTSD who have become peace activists
✦ Hospice caregivers
Over the last 3 decades, I’ve helped well over 1000 people write and publish their memoirs, perform their solo shows on stage and write personal monologues that share their deepest soul experiences with the world.
It has been deeply therapeutic for me and my clients to tell our stories - it has created more healing, peace and joy than I ever thought possible.
I have always known that storytelling is my path - my spiritual, emotional, human path.
It’s my honor and joy to help my clients tell their stories at the highest level - so they can heal their heart, express their divinity and create a new narrative from these ancient stories.
Imagine: What would it be like to have completed your memoir 12 months from now?
What would it be like to...
✦ Finally take your scraps of writing and myriad ideas - and create a profound, brilliant book out of it?
✦ Use your body as a guide - to blend your divinity with your humanity - and share the stories that are begging to be born through you?
✦ Experience storytelling as a therapeutic medium - connecting with the spiritual side of grief, loss, heartache - as well as unacknowledged intuitive gifts and joy?
✦ Allow a greater message to flow through your voice and your wisdom - connecting your life’s purpose to the evolution of collective consciousness?
✦ Have all the support you needed to stay on track, write an incredible memoir - and share your life as a gift to the world?
This is what I’m here to help you create in the Somatic Memoir Lab.
Somatic Writing Memoir Lab Methodology
Go from struggling, blocked writer, to successful, published author.
Liberate Your Voice, Write Your Book, & Publish to Untether Your Power.
“Tanya’s work is a gift and a necessity.”
- O, Oprah Magazine
"Somatic Writing has changed the direction of my life. The practices, the community and the team have thawed my frozen insides. Honest storytelling and deep listening to other people's stories have been truly life changing experiences for me.
They continue to heal me, undo me, and bring love back in my life in so many ways. I am beyond grateful. Thank you so much my cohort and the entire team of Somatic Writing."
- Shruti Mehta,
Writer and Mother
“Tanya has been the ancient midwife of my story. She cradled me, wept with me, sang me through my grief, coaxed my words, and gently guided me to the courage to birth my voice. She once said to me, “I can’t promise you safety here.” In its place, she supported me in the ultimate radical soul liberation - the telling of my story.”
- Melissa Kaplan,
Author & Somatic Therapist
“Working in Tanya’s Somatic Writing container has been nothing short of a magical experience. The love, compassion, inclusivity, and integrity that Tanya and her entire team bring to the work and to the students raises the bar for everyone.
I’m beyond grateful I was guided to Tanya and have learned and grown in so many ways, both as a writer and as a human.”
- Uma Girish,
Published Author
"Tanya has a gift and that gift is to help you find the deepest truth, and then she holds your feet to the fire until you tell it to the best of your ability.
Being in the group is so supportive -- taking the isolation out of being a writer, and also out of the past I’m writing about in which I felt so alone. It's helping me find the voice I lost as a child, or probably more accurately never had or developed, and giving it the space to develop now."
- Diana Lightmoon,
Psychotherapist & Writer
The Somatic Writing Lab
It’s my honor to present:
The Somatic Memoir Lab is a 12-month mentorship program designed to help creatives, healers and visionaries connect with their bodies and write soulful memoirs out of the stories they’ve been longing to tell.
Phase 1: Story Archeology
In the first two months - we walk you through the process of calling back the mystical and other marginalized voices within you and allowing you to write stories from the body, the ancestors and the land.
We explore mystical realms and your ancestral lineage with the intention to liberate all the stories that are craving to be expressed through you. In this phase, we cover our core curriculum of Somatic Writing Tools.
Duration: 60 days
Phase 2: Story Architecture
In the next two months - we walk you through the process of mapping your story and create a high-level outline of your book with the support of Tanya and a qualified Story Midwife.
We will also be covering Fire and Bone Stories, Central Metaphor, and Fascia Stories (Connective Narratives). These are the basis of your living outline, which holds the book structure.
Duration: 60 days
Phase 3: The Body Of The Book
In the next six months of the program - we support you in creating the body of your book.
You will receive structured, weekly Studio Sessions with Tanya and the story midwives to help you write your own unique stories - while being inspired by great authors and fellow writers who are on this journey with you.
You will also get supported by Somatic Healers who will help you address the trauma in your ancestral family constellation system - unblocking your writing and opening you to the multiple layers and timelines of your story.
You will receive all the support that full time literary writers receive - and more!
Duration: 180 days
Phase 4: Preparation for Publishing
In the last two months of the program, you’ll receive an editorial evaluation from Tanya and her team of editors. You will be guided to a path of self-publishing, hybrid publishing or traditional publishing, based on what’s right for you and your intentions for the book.
Duration: 60 days
“Tanya is a teacher and coach who has unlocked the code for creating a perfect environment to cultivate radical growth. I am a busy entrepreneur who came to Tanya with a story to share. Tanya was able to cultivate my skills in a way that gave a framework and a timeframe to see this project through from birth to creation. As a professional coach myself, I know good coaching works, but Tanya's approach that is equal parts pragmatic and creative, supported my effort in a way that would be unmatched by someone else. My time with Tanya has provided my work and my life a quantum transformation. If you're looking to level up in life and in your creative work, look no further.”
- Hailee Bland Walsh
Writer & Owner of City Gym
“Tanya is a master magician. She has a gift for coaxing essential stories from a performer's backpack of possibilities. Her ways are subtle, but supportive as she makes it safe for storytellers to recognize their deepest truths. She then helps those narratives rise and take shape. Tanya is like a flute player who invites your stories to uncoil and dance in a haunting rhythm. She helps you recognize your most intriguing threads, then guides you in weaving a tapestry from your life. The result is a one-person show that has exceptional emotional integrity.”
- Dorothy Fadiman
Writer and Solo Performer, Academy Award Nominated Filmmaker
Life changing! I’ve been working on my book for more than 30 years. I had boxes full of research, sample book proposals, beginning chapters. But I could never get beyond…I was frozen in my trauma.
Somatic Writing allowed me to breakthrough and access stories that I thought had been lost forever. I’ve learned to write from and through the trauma held in my body, rather than my fact-telling brain.
- Elan Lambert
Social Worker, Writer
“Tanya is at once gentle and challenging. I have faith she can coax out the real story that wants to be told. She understands how we stop ourselves and how to bypass those obstacles. I’m coming to understand that the story doesn't have to be about ‘how I became a perfected being;’ it can be about the angst and doubt and messiness of who we really are.”
- Juliet Calabi, Writer
I am a beginning writer, having had the sense I was holding my most truthful stories, my most authentic stories somewhere deep within, unclear as to how to access the pain and the beauty that was quietly asking to be given a voice. Through gentle, safe, and yet powerful exercises, Somatic Writing helped me to find that access to those stories, slowly moving the fear aside so that I am now becoming more able to experience a deeper level of writing. Somatic Writing offered more than I could have ever hoped for, and I most certainly felt seen, heard, and endlessly supported. The program provided space and capacity to challenge myself to stretch further, to take risks in writing my stories. I continue to refer again and again to all I came to embody through Somatic Writing's teachings. The time spent in this Memoir Lab and with the community of writers on the calls was one of the greatest gifts I could have given myself. It has changed how I am able to know myself, and in that, how I am able to write. Thank you Somatic Writing, for all of what you bring to our world!
- Diane Green,
Psycotherapist, Writer
“Tanya created a creative container for my book project that allowed me to progress despite the periods when I lost momentum. Her firm but tender guidance provided me with just enough structure to finish my manuscript. She promised I would feel differently about myself after its completion and I do. I continue to draw upon her suggestions for accessing my wisest self."
- Janet Pfeffer,
Writer
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Does it really take a full year to complete my manuscript?Yes - that’s right. It takes a year or more for most writers to complete their book. It is possible that you might be able to work through it faster - but we recommend that you take your time to connect with your body and allow for the spiritual and emotional integration to happen. This will support you in stepping into your author’s identity, which is related to leadership and power.
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When will this program open for enrollment next?The Somatic Memoir Lab only opens for enrollment once or twice a year.
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Are there payment plans available?Yes - there are payment plans available. Book a call to find out more.
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Is there access to publication at the end of The Somatic Memoir Lab?Yes. We offer two different options for publication support. One is a traditional NY publishing path with a book proposal, letter to agents and a developmental edit. Or, we partner with a hybrid and self-publishing house in California that also supports you in holistically marketing and leveraging your book. These paths come at an additional cost once your first draft is complete.
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Can men also join The Somatic Memoir Lab?Absolutely - we have worked with a few wonderful men in our programs before. Feel free to book a call and connect with Tanya.
The Somatic Memoir Lab exists to change the dominant culture through how we write our personal narratives.
I’ll be honest with you - The Somatic Memoir Lab doesn’t exist with the sole mission of producing NY Times Best Selling Books (although we have all the resources to help you make it happen, if that’s what you want).
Our mission is much deeper than that. Our mission is to help leaders, visionaries, artists and empaths write culture-changing stories that create radical, quantum transformation in the reader and also in you, the writer.
This process of transformation is NOT for the faint of heart.
It calls you to step closer to the center of your soul - and express it shamelessly.
It calls you to shine a light on your truth.
It calls you to burn through fear that gets in the way.
Fear of your family or spouse’s reaction.
Fear that you won’t be able to handle that trauma you’re digging up.
Fear that your writing won't be good enough.
As you release all your fears - your story in it’s divine perfection comes through.
A story that the world is longing to hear from you.
I want to warn you that this journey of transformation and sharing your truth doesn’t promise safety. But there is a safe space available for the transformation.
In the Somatic Memoir Lab - you’ll find a radically safe space to move through the process.
A cocoon - where you can break down and break through without judgment.
An incubator - with resources and warmth to keep you going when fears threaten to derail your mission.
What can I promise you is that there’s radical liberation available on the other side of this process. Not just for you - for your readers, too.
The Somatic Memoir Lab is nothing like anything you've tried before.
You’ve gone through other writing workshops, retreats or online courses - and you dropped out of them midway. (You’re not alone - most of my students have been through the same journey.)
You didn’t get enough support - and you didn’t get the right kind of support.
I understand that. To create a heartfelt literary masterpiece - you need the same level of support that literary writers have. (Most commercial writing programs don’t provide that.)
The Somatic Memoir Lab is structured to give you access to everything you possibly need to complete your memoir - from inspiration, to somatic healing, to story retrieval support, to “writing in community” sessions.
Having helped over one thousand artists and visionaries tell their stories - I know exactly where you’re likely to get stuck, and there’s support to help you move through those moments.
If you feel called to take the next step with me - I’d be honored to support you.