Workshops Below & More Coming Soon…
If you would like to book a one-on-one private writing session or workshop for your organization, please contact us here.
Upcoming Workshops
Make Meaning Holiday Session: Exploring Grief, Grace & Spaciousness
As the holidays approach, many of us find this season to be especially challenging. Grief combined with the challenges family, friends and work can sometimes present may leave us feeling overwhelmed and disconnected.
With the hope of supporting you during this season, we are offering a single session specifically for former participants of the Make Meaning Workshop to provide an ongoing opportunity to practice meaning-making through writing, reading and deep listening.
In this honest, tender-hearted and supportive environment, participants will explore how their lived experiences, even their most difficult ones, can energize their capacity for connection, empathy, and resilience.
Participants will continue to explore and discover more about themselves and their life- changing experiences on paper as they nourish their capacity to grow with grief, not just suffer from it.
• During this session, we simply write, read and listen to one another.
• Deep listening is a potent aspect of this work, allowing us to listen from a spacious, receptive place within ourselves. It is a practice that cultivates connection and presence.
• Curated writing prompts are provided as creative catalysts to engage our deeper self so that we may become more curious and compassionate with ourselves and others.
• There is no criticism, interruption, or commentary from participants.
• This will be a deeply kind 90-minute exploration. No fear or apprehension necessary.
• Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
Tuesday, December 10th - single session
• 6:30 – 8:00 PM EST
• $25 ticket price
Past Workshops
Make Meaning Workshop: Moving from Loss to Found
Hosted by New York Zen Center
Join Alexandra Vassilaros and Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell for a 5-week journey in writing and compassionate community building.
Offered online only: Join us for the Make Meaning Workshop, where we intentionally create a communal experience that is boundaried and compassionate.
Crisis can knock us right off our feet and fill us with resistance, fear, and stress. In this writing workshop, participants will explore the alchemy of grief and learn how we can use it to initiate growth, self-compassion, and emotional progress.
During the workshop, we simply write, read, and listen to one another. There is no criticism, interruption, or commentary from participants. Writing prompts are provided as creative catalysts to engage our inner voice and identify our innate capacity for curiosity, wisdom and resilience.
Deep listening is a useful aspect of this work, allowing us to listen from a deep receptive place within ourselves. It is a practice that cultivates clarity and connection.
This process offers primary tools for continuing emotional health and balance.
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
Wednesdays, October 9th - November 6th
• 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST
• $250 ticket price
This is a 5-week program.
Moving from Loss to Found: Making Meaning Workshop
Hosted by New York Zen Center
In the Make Meaning Workshop we intentionally create a communal experience that is boundaried and compassionate.
Crisis can knock us right off our feet and fill us with resistance, fear, and stress. In this writing workshop, participants will explore the alchemy of grief and learn how we can use it to initiate growth, self-compassion, and emotional progress.
During the workshop we simply write, read and listen to one another. There is no criticism, interruption, or commentary from participants. Writing prompts are provided as creative catalysts to engage our inner voice and identify our innate capacity for curiosity, wisdom and resilience.
Deep listening is a useful aspect of this work, allowing us to listen from a deep receptive place within ourselves. It is a practice that cultivates clarity and connection.
This process offers primary tools for continuing emotional health and balance.
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
Wednesdays, April 3rd - 24th
• 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST
• $200 ticket price
Care for Caregivers Support Group
Hosted by New York Zen Center with Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell and Alexandra Vassilaros
Taking care of someone can be an act of love and devotion. It can also be overwhelming and fraught with complex emotions of frustration, guilt and sorrow.
This workshop will address the caregiver’s unique and challenging experience while providing ongoing community and support to participants.
During this safe and experiential workshop we will utilize various tools such as sharing our experience, writing, poetry, and ritual. This group will provide an opportunity to gain perspective and engage with our caregiving responsibilities in new ways.
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
THIRD THURSDAY EVENING OF THE MONTH | MARCH – AUGUST 2024
• 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST
• $300 ticket price
I LOVE YOU BUT BE ELSEWHERE: writing-for-healing to address painful relationships
Hosted In-Person at Shiloh Teahouse (Downtown Los Angeles)
Join Alexandra Vassilaros, Pulitzer-Finalist and Make Meaning Workshop Founder, for a writing-for-healing workshop for those who are suffering or have suffered in codependent or unfulfilling relationships.
Disruptions. Disappearances. Disappointments and Dependencies. How can we grow and ground ourselves when relationship challenges like these seem to leave us withered, bewildered or broken hearted?
In this safe and boundaried workshop we practice writing, reading and deep-listening to shift our perspective, reclaim our energy and discover more about our deep heart and what it needs.
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
Monday, October 23, 2023
• 7:00pm-10:00pm
• $35 ticket price
Moving from Loss to Found: Making Meaning Workshop
Hosted by New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
In the Make Meaning Workshop we intentionally create a communal experience that is boundaried and compassionate.
Crisis can knock us right off our feet and fill us with resistance, fear, and stress. In this writing workshop, participants will explore the alchemy of grief and learn how we can use it to initiate growth, self-compassion, and emotional progress.
During the workshop we simply write, read and listen to one another. There is no criticism, interruption, or commentary from participants. Writing prompts are provided as creative catalysts to engage our inner voice and identify our innate capacity for curiosity, wisdom and resilience.
Deep listening is a useful aspect of this work, allowing us to listen from a deep receptive place within ourselves. It is a practice that cultivates clarity and connection.
This process offers primary tools for continuing emotional health and balance.
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
TUESDAYS, OCT 3RD – OCT 24TH
• 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST
• $200 ticket price
Writing-for-Healing Workshop with Breathwork & Meditation
Hosted by Yoga Shanti
with Alexandra Vassilaros, Writer & Founder of the Make Meaning Workshop and Eric Pettigrew, Founder and Practitioner of Holistic Life Works.
Make Meaning Workshop we intentionally create a communal experience that is boundaried and compassionate.
Crisis can knock us right off our feet and fill us with resistance, fear, and stress. In this writing workshop, participants will explore the alchemy of grief and learn how we can use it to initiate growth, self-compassion, and emotional progress.
During the workshop we simply write, read and listen to one another. There is no criticism, interruption, or commentary from participants. Writing prompts are provided as creative catalysts to engage our inner voice and identify our innate capacity for curiosity, wisdom and resilience.
Deep listening is a useful aspect of this work, allowing us to listen from a deep receptive place within ourselves. It is a practice that cultivates clarity and connection.
This process offers primary tools for continuing emotional health and balance.
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
Thursdays, June 22nd to July 5th, 2023
• 5:30 - 7 p.m EST
• $189 ticket price | or $55 to drop in to a workshop
Moving from Loss to Found: Making Meaning Workshop
Hosted by New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
In the Make Meaning Workshop we intentionally create a communal experience that is boundaried and compassionate.
Crisis can knock us right off our feet and fill us with resistance, fear, and stress. In this writing workshop, participants will explore the alchemy of grief and learn how we can use it to initiate growth, self-compassion, and emotional progress.
During the workshop we simply write, read and listen to one another. There is no criticism, interruption, or commentary from participants. Writing prompts are provided as creative catalysts to engage our inner voice and identify our innate capacity for curiosity, wisdom and resilience.
Deep listening is a useful aspect of this work, allowing us to listen from a deep receptive place within ourselves. It is a practice that cultivates clarity and connection.
This process offers primary tools for continuing emotional health and balance.
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary to participate.
WEDNESDAYS, APRIL 19TH – MAY 10TH, 2023
• 6:30 - 8 p.m EST
• $200 ticket price
The Alchemy of Grief & Loss: In-Person Make Meaning Workshop
Hosted at Shiloh Teahouse (Downtown Los Angeles)
We don’t only have to be at the mercy of life’s challenges, survive them and “get on with it.” Instead, we can use our most difficult experiences as catalysts for meaning-making, growth and healing. The work we do in the MMW helps us to activate our innate wisdom as we practice tools that orient us to our deep intuitive self.
In this intentional and boundaried environment our shared vulnerability becomes, what Rumi calls A MIGHTY KINDNESS, for ourselves and everyone in the room. Together we’ll practice the healing skill of writing and deep-listening to amplify honesty, compassion and spaciousness.
There is no cross talk, feedback or interruptions. This will be a deeply kind 90-minute exploration. No fear or apprehension necessary, and no writing experience is necessary.
Tuesday, April 11th
Doors: 7 pm
At MMW we intentionally create a communal experience that is boundaried and compassionate .
During the workshop we simply write, read and listen to one another. There is no criticism, interruption or commentary from participants. Writing prompts are provided as creative catalysts to engage our inner voice and identify our innate capacity for resilience and wisdom.
Deep listening is an important skill that involves listening from a deep receptive place in ourselves. It is a practice that cultivates clarity, curiosity and connection.
The mmw process offers primary tools for continuing emotional health and balance.
Throughout the series, participants will learn to make meaning…
By exploring the extraordinary details of their lives on paper in a safe and respectful environment
By learning the skill of deep listening
By experiencing how a writing practice can become a stabilizing ritual in their lives
By bringing awareness to obstacles that compound grief, stress, and fear
By practicing how to suspend judgment long enough to create space around thoughts or experiences that make us feel isolated or stuck
By expressing and awakening their capacity for optimism, engagement and aliveness
Absolutely no writing experience is necessary
