Stories from the Body
Dates: Wednesdays from September 23 - November 11, 2026
Times: 4:30PM EST Wednesdays and recorded for those who can not attend real time
Location: Online, through the Transformative Language Arts Network
Cost: $340 - $395, Scholarships available
Register: HERE
Stories from the Body is an immersive eight-week course that guides participants in discovering, unlocking, and transforming the stories held within the body. Drawing on the work of Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara Mainguy, this series integrates narrative therapy, somatic awareness, and indigenous wisdom to support healing. Each weekly session blends ceremony and community-building with practical exercises in breath, movement, and mindful listening, creating a safe and welcoming space for personal exploration.
What you will experience:
Participants learn to attune to the body’s messages, dialoguing with sensations, pain, and tension to uncover hidden narratives beneath conscious awareness.
Through a combination of journaling, guided imagery, art, and movement, individuals explore how family histories and cultural influences are embodied.
The course emphasizes embodied storywork, encouraging re-authoring of old patterns and envisioning new possibilities for growth and well-being.
Rituals and ceremonies support the communal aspect of healing, while creative modalities, such as drawing and dramatization, help participants express and integrate their stories.
By the course’s end, each person will have practiced techniques for finding and transforming body-based stories, and will leave with tools for ongoing self-discovery and storytelling.
This course is ideal for those interested in holistic healing, personal narrative, and mind-body integration, providing practical skills and communal support for lasting personal change.
Where and When Does this Online Course Meet?
This is a hybrid online class, conducted through Zoom meetings and the online classroom Wet Ink.
Zoom meetings will be held at 4:30 PM ET / 8:30 PM UT on consecutive Wednesdays beginning 23 September and ending 11 November 2026. Sessions will be recorded and made available only to registered students.
Online readings and an asynchronous discussion board will be hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. At the end of the class, each student will receive an email that contains a link to download an archive of all their content and interactions.
You can find out more about this event and register HERE.
Week by Week Schedule
Week 1: Ceremony and Creating Safe Space
Introductions, course overview, shared intentions.
Ceremony to open the group; importance of ritual to set context.
Building radical acceptance and safety as a basis for storytelling.
Introduction to the body as a source of story.
Week 2: Listening to the Body’s Messages
Somatic awareness practices: breath, movement, and presence.
Exercises for attending to physical sensations and symptoms as story clues.
Journaling: bodily sensations as the start of narrative threads.
Week 3: Eliciting the Story of the Pain
Techniques for dialoguing with the body.
Guided imagery and movement to access “body memory.”
Group and paired work: sharing stories linked to physical feeling.
Week 4: Exploring Family and Cultural Stories in the Body
Exploring how ancestral, family, and cultural stories live in posture, movement and pain.
Mapping inherited patterns and their bodily expression.
Creative exercise: drawing or sculpting “the body’s history.”
Week 5: Transformation Through Embodied Narrative
Re-authoring: changing perspectives on bodily symptoms through storytelling.
Breathwork and gentle touch to support safe body-based narrative change.
Practice: group story-weaving with alternate outcomes.
Week 6: Movement, Art, and Story
Integration of movement, dance, and art to deepen story from the body.
Puppetry, drawing, dramatization: other forms to access and express somatic narrative.
Sharing artwork and movement-based stories in small groups.
Week 7: Healing Ceremonies and Community Storytelling
Indigenous frameworks for healing circles and communal narrative work.
Designing and participating in a group ceremony for story-sharing and release.
The role of witnessing, drumming, and song in embodied storytelling.
Week 8: Integration and Practice Clinic
Guided “body story” sessions in small groups; practice integrating all techniques.
Peer and faculty feedback, review of experiences.
Final ceremony: closing the circle, intentions for ongoing personal work.
Each session will begin and end with a brief ceremony or mindfulness practice to create structure and honor the themes of ritual and community. This curriculum encourages active participation, creative expression, and respectful witnessing of others’ stories.
Who Should Take This Class?
No prior experience in bodywork or storytelling is necessary—curiosity, openness, and a willingness to participate are the primary requirements. This supportive, nonjudgmental environment welcomes participants of all backgrounds and levels of experience, offering accessible practices for anyone wishing to more fully understand and transform their body’s wisdom and story. Some reasons to take this course are:
Personal Growth
This course is designed for anyone seeking a deeper connection between body and narrative—well-suited to individuals interested in holistic healing, mental health, creative self-discovery, and personal growth. It will benefit people who sense that their bodies hold unspoken stories or unresolved emotions, as well as those experiencing chronic stress, tension, or unexplained physical symptoms.
Professional Development
Therapists, counselors, bodyworkers, and health professionals will find practical techniques to integrate into their own client work, expanding their understanding of trauma, memory, and healing beyond traditional talk therapy approaches.
Creative development
Artists, writers, and creative seekers will be supported in exploring new pathways for inspiration, while those with a desire for more community and ritual in their healing journeys will benefit from the course’s emphasis on group ceremony and collective storytelling.
You can Register HERE.
The TLA Network offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color. You may apply for a TLA Network scholarship here..