PRACTICE SPACES / CREATIVE WORKSHOPS
Making as a way of
paying attention.
Creative Workshops engage the artistic and imaginative life as a disciplined mode of attention. These offerings are not therapy groups, critique workshops, or performance spaces.
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They are structured circles for reading, writing, and listening — designed to cultivate presence through language and image. Imagination is not treated as self-expression alone. It is treated as a way of seeing.
VIRTUAL | SMALL GROUPS | READING | WRITING
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Creative workshops are not psychotherapy, critique groups, or therapy spaces. They do not provide diagnosis, treatment planning, or clinical containment. They are structured practice spaces for disciplined creative attention.
CREATIVE WORKSHOP
The Rag and Bone
Group
A retreat for couples practicing individual growth in the context of shared life
The Rag and Bone Group gathers fragments — lines, images, memory, intuition — and works with them carefully. The name suggests what is often discarded or overlooked. We attend to what remains.
This group is not about publishing, productivity, or performance. It is a practice in noticing and shaping language with care.
ORIENTATION
"A disciplined circle for engaging poetry and imagination as a way of strengthening attention."
WHAT WE WILL WORK WITH
Read poetry slowly and aloud
Sit with language without rushing to interpretation
Respond to short writing invitations (always optional)
Practice shared listening without critique or advice
Work with image, ambiguity, and unfinished language
Allow silence to function as part of the work
Develop a steady rhythm of reading and making over time
STRUCTURE
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Live synchronous gatherings — virtual
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Limited group size
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Meet monthly | 8 sessions per year
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Optional writing invitations between sessions
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No critique, no performance, no output requirement
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Consistent meeting rhythm over a defined period
"Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart."
W. B. YEATS — THE CIRCUS ANIMAL'S DESERTION
Who This Workshop is For
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Those drawn to poetry or language as a form of reflection
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Individuals who want a structured creative rhythm
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Writers at any level who prefer formation over critique
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Therapists, professionals, artists, and laypeople alike
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Anyone willing to show up and attend carefully
ABOUT CREATIVE WORKSHOP
The place of
imagination in practice
On why the creative life belongs here
A NOTE ON THESE OFFERINGS
Creative Workshops are part of the Institute's Practice Spaces — structured, non-therapeutic environments for formation and attention. They sit alongside cohorts and retreats as offerings for those doing the long work of becoming themselves.
Want to learn more?
If you are curious about the Rag and Bone Group — or about Creative Workshops in general — the best next step is a simple inquiry. There is no obligation, and no particular background is required to begin a conversation.
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You are also welcome to explore the other Practice Spaces the Institute offers — cohorts, retreats, and courses — or to reach out about psychotherapy and clinical training if that is what you are looking for.