Scribbles of Strength

Through guided prompts and creative activities, participants will explore their individual strengths, lessons learned, and moments of gratitude.

The session includes:

1. Creating a Safe Space: Setting intentions and connecting as a group.
2. Guided Writing: Engaging in reflective activities with quiet time to write.
3. Sharing in Community: Sharing pieces in a supportive, nonjudgmental environment.
4. Debrief and Reflect: Wrapping up with a full-group reflection.

Activities may include writing letters to your suffering, crafting personal experience narratives, creating gratitude-inspired found poems, or naming wounds as fictional characters. Come as you are and leave with a renewed sense of clarity, acceptance, and creative empowerment.

Emily Marjean Coolbeth is a seasoned writer, educator, and caregiver who has studied creative writing at the University of Florida, through the Great Smokies Writing Program at the University of North Carolina Asheville, and through the Narrative Healthcare Graduate Studies program at Lenoir-Rhyne University. She is a woman in recovery from substance addiction, was a victim of sex trafficking, and is healing from other forms of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. Optimistic, vibrant, bold, and compassionate, Emily believes that writing– in any form– is a vehicle for deep healing. Her current online literary publication, No Pain Wasted, is described as “an honest and unapologetic multi-genre literary journey exploring the light within the darkness, the love beyond the pain.”

Erich Spader is an artist, adult learning specialist and currently working as a peer support specialist at a community mental health clinic. Having lived through and survived physical abuse and neglect as a child and the traumas of military combat that led to years of addiction and self harm, traditional treatments weren’t enough. He believes that you have to “feel it to heal it” and being creative through the arts can be a life changing journey on the path of recovery from almost anything. Using poetry and personal narrative essays as well painting and printmaking has allowed him to unlock a passion for helping others find what will bring them to that healing place that lies within all of us.

Host or Publisher Thought Fox