• A Transformative Life Writing Retreat
• Life Writing at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Birmingham, England
• Life Writing At Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada
• Books For Sale
• Student Comments
• Articles About Us

 

Welcome To Heartspace

 

 


Joanne Klassen

Check out our blog at: transformativewriting.wordpress.com

Join us at Facebook:
Heartspace Transformative Writers


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New Feature! Audio has now been added to our Stories page.
Listen to the Author read this selection!
Time 2:34
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Read New Stories and Poems!

"A Last and Lasting Gift"




 

cid:1.1594181527@web84409.mail.ac2.yahoo.com

Seasons of the Heart

--a time for Reflecting, Remembering & Writing

Heartspace Writing School Presents A Transformative Life Writing™ Retreat

Co-facilitated by Joanne Klassen and friends

Friday February 17 and Saturday February 18, 2012


Whether you've never written a personal story or have been writing for years,
this workshop will provide the atmosphere, support, encouragement, tools and
inspiration to visit the seasons of your life and capture family stories worth re-
discovering to illuminate the path ahead on your personal journey.

 

  • Bring a notebook, pen and willingness to transcend the mundane
  • We'll visit all seasons: Birth & Childhood, Teen Years, Adulthood and Later Life
  • Discover the hidden treasure of your own lived experience
  • Create links between present moments, imagination, memory and inspiration

Registration: $50 – Reserves your place
*Tuition: $100
Fees include the retreat, workshop materials, beverages & GST

Location : Lindenwoods Estates, Common Room
495 Lindenwoods Drive East
Winnipeg, MB R3P 2R7

To register email: jklassen@write-away.net

Or call (204) 452-1941 or 488-4984

* Limited to the first 12 registrants.

 

--New Course Offering--
Creating Living Legacies

Is this the year for you to write your family story?

 

Be sure to register early for this new course  

Creating Living Legacies

Who, what, why, when, where, and how to write life stories
with meaning, using Transformative Writing

Facilitated by Joanne Klassen and Eleanor Chornoboy
of Heartspace Writing School ( www.write-away.net )

March 12 & 19, 2012 (7:00 – 9:30 p.m.)

1310 Taylor Ave. (March 12)
600 Shaftesbury Blvd. (March 19)

Cost: $50 (includes both evenings and all materials).
Limited to 15 participants
.

Sponsored jointly by the Mennonite Heritage Centre
and the Centre for MB Studies

T
o register, call one of the Centres at either 888-6781 or 669-6575

Payment can be made by cheque or credit card
Registration deadline: February 15, 2012.

 


NEW – Learn about Transformative Writing in a one hour interview with Joanne Klassen. October 26, 2010 broadcast at the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada with Gus Henne, interviewer.

Click to listen. It begins with music and an introduction:
http://ckuw.ca/cgi-bin/ckuw-gridnew.pl?action=showaudio&show=tuesday,14:00



 

"Learn the craft of knowing how to open your heart and to turn on your creativity. There's a light inside you." --Judith Jameson

Joanne Klassen autographs copies of her book, Tools of Transformation
photo by Brenda Fleming, Editor, The Lance.

Heartspace Associates of Winnipeg presents an innovative personal and career development
program featuring Transformative Writing™, a vehicle for self discovery and expression.

.

Purpose

Heartspace Writing School is a unique learning community established in 1998 by Joanne Klassen to introduce the Transformative Writing™ Process, a way of moving beyond writing technologies to tap into the unlimited creative, intuitive forces available to everyone. There are no red pens here. No previous writing experience is needed.


Heartspace Writing School
is directed by Joanne Klassen, business and personal development specialist, keynote speaker, and writer. Her published work, includes articles, interviews, books, poetry, 1000 training manuals and a board game. Her first book Learning to Live, Learning to Love, was translated and distributed worldwide.

Benefits

Personal and career communications come alive with better results using Transformative Writing™. Simple, proven processes and 25 new tools to break down old barriers create new pathways to access:

Thoughts • Ideas • Feelings • Emotions
Opinions • Experiences • Imagination

Zero in on the "roots and wings" needed to make writing a more joyful, satisfying experience. Set your goals and your timetable.

- Easily access imagination & memory

- Find your unique writer's voice

- Use encouragement as a springboard

"This program gives your words wings!"
-- E. Chornoboy

...

Features

1. The time, place, focus, feedback, support and techniques for starting and staying with self exploration and writing.

2. A dynamic group experience using a variety of approaches to increase awareness, self-confidence and creative expression.

3. 25 Transformative Writing™ Tools.

The Heartspace Writing School Mission:

Life enriching personal development and creative
self expression though Transformative Writing™.

Core Values:

Building: Clarity • Confidence
Creativity • Compassion • Connection
Contribution • Commitment • Community

An Invitation to . . .

• Anyone looking for a life changing new way of viewing and expressing themself.

• Closet writers who have wondered if their writing is any good and want help to over- come fear and doubt.

• Anyone who has wanted to write and wondered how to get started.

"I can finally say, 'I like myself and my writing'.  This process is both creative and healing"
-- C. Doran

 

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can...begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
--Goethe

Discover the writer within and the role he/she can play in improving your relationships, your career, and the quality of your life.


REGISTER NOW to avoid disappointment!


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NEWS! The European Centre for Transformative Life Writing was formed in April 2010 as a partnership between Heartspace Writing School’s Director, Joanne Klassen and Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre of Birmingham, England. This provides Woodbrooke's outstanding educational and administrative resources to offer easy access for both European and North American audiences for Transformative Life Writing.

Life Writing for Transformation programs at Woodbrooke have been over-subscribed for the last several years. In April 2011 ten facilitators will begin training to offer Life Writing for Transformation in a variety of locations in Europe and North America.

The first workshop request was received from Sweden within days after the Centre was established.

To learn more about program opportunities contact: Stuart Masters
stuart.masters@woodbrooke.org.uk

or Joanne Klassen
jklassen@write-away.net



Life Writing For Transformation

WIth Joanne Klassen and Eleanor Chornoboy

Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Birmingham, England
April, 2012

For more information and to register visit http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk or email: enquiries@woodbrooke.org.uk



Life Writing At CMU

A Week of Transformation with Joanne Klassen
at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba, May, 2012.

Limited to the first 10 registrants, no qualification requirements.
For more information and to register visit: http://www.cmu.ca/writing_school.html


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Books For Sale

Tools Of Transformation

Tools of Transformation: Write Your Way to New Worlds of Possibility - in Just 5 Minutes by Joanne Haynes Klassen

Click Here to Buy Now

If you want to bring the best of yourself to the rest of your life, Tools of Transformation is a book you'll find packed with helpful guidance, illustrations, and exercises.

Joanne Klassen's book Tools Of Transformation is used in all Heartspace Writing Classes.


Time For A Story?

Time For A Story?

An anthology of stories from 13 Heartspace writers spanning four generations.

$16.95

Click Here to Buy Now
or Call 204-736-4800

 

Learning To Live, Learning To Love

Learning to Live, Learning to Love by Joanne Haynes Klassen

Click Here to Buy Now

Beautifully told through words and pictures, the Learning To Live, Learning To Love, describes the human journey toward openness, forgiveness and fulfilment. In this book you will discover ways to increase self-worth, understand addictions, communicate effectively, and joyfully experience life moment by moment.


Trouble In Grandpa's Golf Bag

Trouble In Grandpa's Golf Bag by Joanne Haynes Klassen

 

What trouble is brewing in Grandpa's golf bag? Curl up beside Grandma and hear about how Grandpa's birthday present, a shiny new golf club, causes an upset when it brags to the other clubs that it is Grandpa's favourite.

Whether golf clubs or family members, the newest often gets lots of attention. Trouble in Grandpa's Golf Bag gives children a glimpse of the range of feelings they may have. The story ends with the reassurance that, oldest or newest, have you guessed? Inside our hearts we love each of you best.

$19.95 Canadian plus shipping and handling. $15.95 USA plus shipping and handling.

Click Here to Buy Now

or Call 204-736-4800


Faspa

Faspa - A Snack Of Mennonite Stories by Eleanor Chornoboy

Faspa; teatime, coffee-break; a coffee and snack time between lunch and supper.

Kjenn Jie Noch Plautdietsch? A Mennonite Low German Dictionary by Herman Rempel

Faspa is a smorgasbord of Mennonite stories with universal appeal. The pages are filled with stories and anecdotes about the rural way of life ofthe second and third generation Canadians – Mennonite Canadians.

The stories are spiced with a healthy dose of humour, a deep sense of pathos, and practical, home grown information. Read about:

  • toilet training with straw
  • farming with stubborn broncos
  • home grown medical practices
  • the impact of Mennonite sons going off to war
  • rural telephone party lines
  • and much, much more.

Each page offers a glimpse of Mennonite life. The reader is given a taste of what has been left in the past, and an appetite for the savoury traditions of today like Faspa.

Click Here to Buy Now
or Call 204-736-4800


Snow Angels

Snow Angles by Eleanor Chornoboy

Click Here to Buy Now
or Call 204-736-4800

Snow Angels is a beautiful story that touches the heart and lingers there long after, as a loving gesture would. It will delight children and the child in all of us with its tale of winter magic and the gifts of pure kindness and love.- Marjorie Anderson, Editor of Dropped Threads


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Book ME In


Creation Groans
Winn Leslie

I am aware of joy and peace, such strange occupiers of my inner landscape to emerge so effortlessly. How good and holy it is to be in this generous space. I feel excitement ripple through me – new hope born, new feelings slightly querulous, tremulous, hesitant, tiptoeing to the surface looking around cagily, carefully, wordlessly – can we come out, can we love and be loved, can we be born? Yes, cries my heart, my soul. Here is your birthing space, your birthing table, where you will gestate and bring forth the tiny struggling writhing wrinkled slippery life that is you, that is your birthright, your right to be born. Welcome, welcome, little one!

Winn Leslie

Winn – thrives on traveling, cycling, reading, journaling, housecleaning, family and friends; concerned about peace and justice, refugees, environment; mother of four, “great” grandmother of six (last’s the best).


The Gift
Anne Mahon
gently I came, achingly I stayed
relieved at the comfort of friendship
other travellers, curious and laden
take the seats beside me

let them in
let us explore together
where is the truth, painfully waiting
together we forge the metal of our minds
imploring more

a gift given not wrapped in paper and string
but placed freely in my receptive hands
I could not give it to myself
I could barely hold it
though I wanted it desperately
it is mine

sow a seed, the farmer plows
tired and hot the onlooker
offers a cool drink of comfort

there in the offering, truth spoken
acceptance comes, and is taken
its marrow sucked clean, bones shiny

my outstretched hands are full and heavy
let them rest gently in the lap of time

Anne Mahon

Anne values baking desserts, meaningful conversation, service through volunteering, a good haircut, self expression, searching for the truth, and all things beautiful, especially Paul, Kendra, Mark and Andrew.


Insight From My Block Heater
Laura McClelland
My spine was tight as I drove home late that Wednesday evening: my very, warm-blooded body’s response to the extreme cold. The country and western station croons a sappy, heart song. I’m such a sucker for a good, heart story. The late evening DJ chats on about staying in where you are safe and warm this cold night.

Earlier this evening, I had briefly considered staying home, rather than heading out to join my biweekly writing council. There is no doubt that it is colder tonight than I ever remember but something always makes me go forth to write with Heartspace. And tonight was no different. Our council had been in full attendance, despite the record setting wind chills. (OK, we were short one writer who had the opportunity to write under a sun umbrella on a white sand beach for the month of January.) Most nights we all show up. We may be exhausted, stressed, sleep deprived, worried, with broken bones or broken spirit but we still show up.

As I plugged in my car’s block heater, before heading back into the warmth of home, a vision occurred to me. As I bent to connect the extension cord to the plug on the front of my truck, I saw myself plugging in my heart. The reason I counter cold and snow, fatigue and full schedules to be with my writing friends is to plug in my heart. We write together to bring light and warmth to the huge centres of our being. Just as I plug in my car to be assured its heart (engine in automotive jargon) doesn’t seize in the cold, so too I need to plug into like-minded spirits. I need to be assured my heart doesn’t seize in our fast paced, often cold world where sometimes it seems easier, and more accepted, to freeze than feel.

Tonight’s session was full of rich insight, warm laughter, honest humour and positive connection. My heartspace feels full and fluid. Like my car’s block heater, my connection each week with Heartspace plugs in my heart, keeping my soul warm, receptive, and comfortable with the functions of my life, helping me to weather whatever comes my way.

Laura McClelland
Laura is a stay at home Mom of three daughters. She enjoys camping, yoga, walking her dog, Chevy, and hanging out with her best friend, Bob.