“Any healing is best accomplished in a journey with others.

I invite anyone who has experienced a loss or a hardship to join me for a therapeutic writing workshop

called Writing to Heal from Trauma, from 10 am to noon, Saturday, April 14.

Sign Up Here

The Workshop will be held on three consecutive Saturdays at Central Washington Veterans Counseling, 610 N. Mission, Suite 202, Wenatchee, WA. The cost is $75 for the three-session workshop. Scholarships are available. Pre-registration is required. Writing experience is not necessary to participate in the workshops. For more information, contact Leita Crossfield at 509-670-8272 or leitah@leitacrossfield.com or go http://feedyourcreativeelephant.com/courses/writing-to-heal-from-trauma/

Crossfield, a trauma survivor herself is the author of the book, “The Not-So Subtle Art of Rising Above Trauma; Seven Lessons the Fynbos of South Africa Teach Us About Resiliency.” She has spent the past five years studying post traumatic growth, and is a member of the Transformative Language Arts (TLA) network. Crossfield plans to use her own book and the book, “The Story You Need to Tell” by Sandra Marinella (MA, Med), based on Marinella’s own cancer journey for the workshop. Marinella\’s book includes writing exercises from her expressive writing workshops with veterans, cancer patients, students and others.

Crossfield began working in 2014 with counselors and veterans and their families at Central Washington Veterans Counseling, which provides treatment for combat and military related post-traumatic stress disorder and its secondary manifestations, after her former Green Beret husband moved the family to Wenatchee. Crossfield is an award-winning writer, former journalist, and former military wife; she has been writing since she was eight, has kept journals for most of her life, and for every year of her adult life. She said her writing and journaling have always been a conduit towards healing and personal growth.

Crossfield’s writing and work with veterans and counselors led her to research the field of expressive writing and post traumatic growth, where she discovered numerous sources that validate the use of writing as a healing tool. These include the works of Kathleen Adams, who is director of the Therapeutic Writing Institute and the Center for Journal Therapy; James Pennebaker, who wrote Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval; and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, who founded the Transformative Language Arts MA program at Goddard College. Crossfield has participated in courses for Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy, developed by Cathy Malchiodi, as well as support groups for women.

In 2016, needing a way to recover from her recent, devastating divorce and to rebuild her life, Crossfield launched Feed Your Creative Elephant to heal from her own trauma wounds and to invite others towards a healing journey.

Leita Crossfield launched the online community and blog, Feed Your Creative Elephant to encourage post traumatic growth and resiliency. \”This online community is a tiny start; it only begins to touch the surface of healing your writing or creative self, to help encourage your trauma growth and resiliency.”