Offerings
canDID Expressions is dedicated to exploring and sharing the lived experiences of people who have trauma-based dissociation through writing and other expressive arts.
Our online groups and classes offer a safe space to create in a community of people with shared experiences. Join us in our offerings below.
If you are interested in facilitating a writing, art, movement, music, or other group, please contact us with your idea.
Life Writing
These interactive groups foster community, connection, and creative self-expression through free writing related to life with trauma-based dissociation. Whether you are a beginner or experienced writer, you’ll be invited to explore new ways of expressing yourself in a supportive environment. Participants will have an opportunity to share their writing and receive reflective comments from other group members, helping deepen the experience of self discovery.
Maximum number of participants: 5
Dates: Tuesdays, August 18 – September 8 (4 weeks)
Time: 4:00 PM Pacific
Cost: From $10.00*
Heart Cards
This expressive arts workshop invites participants to explore their emotional landscape through collage, painting, drawing, found poetry, and creative writing. Using personification, metaphor, and imagination, participants will create unique cards that give shape and voice to their emotions. Designed to expand over time, the deck serves as an evolving creative resource for reflection and insight.
Maximum number of participants: 8
Dates: Saturdays, August 15 – September 5 (4 weeks)
Time: 9:00 AM Pacific
Cost: From $10.00*
Poetic Parts
Poetry can open new ways of understanding ourselves. In this workshop, we use poetry and related prompts to foster self-exploration, creativity, and connection. Participants will read a poem, take part in a guided exercise, and are invited to share with the group. All levels of experience with poetry are welcome.
Maximum number of participants: 6
Dates: Fridays, July 10th – 31st (4 weeks)
Time: 4:00 PM Pacific
Cost: From $10.00*
Kaleidoscope: Open Mic
Join us on the first Friday of each month to enjoy original performances, support fellow community members, and celebrate creative expression in all its forms. Share a poem, story, song, visual artwork, movement piece, music, or another original creation by performing live or submitting a pre-recorded piece to be featured during the gathering. This is a welcoming space to share your creativity, listen to others, and connect through stories, art, and shared experiences.
Dates: First Friday of each month beginning September 2026
Time: 5:00 PM Pacific
Cost: Donation
Therapeutic Peer Mentoring
Support and guidance to help you know, make sense of, and accept your story.
Drawing on both lived experience and extensive training in Story-Informed Trauma Therapy, I accompany you on your healing journey with compassion, curiosity, and respect. Together, we explore events that have shaped your life, navigate the impacts of trauma, and cultivate practices that support connection and enjoyment.
Date: By appointment
Rate: $100.00 per session.
Writing Coaching
Your story is important, and writing can be a healing process. Maybe you struggle with knowing what to write about, how to write without getting triggered, or how to move beyond merely describing what happened to making meaning. We will develop an individualized plan based on your project, from single journal enteries to book-length narratives.
Date: By appointment
Rate: $100.00 per session.
Co-Writing
Bring your writing project and join us in community for a focused writing session. We begin with a quick check-in followed by 60 minutes of quiet writing. Connect, create, and build momentum for your writing practice.
Maximum number of participants: 15
Coming soon!
Co-Creating
Bring your favorite art supplies and join us for a relaxed, creative gathering. We’ll start with a quick check-in, then spend an hour making art, sharing conversation, and enjoying time together. Come as you are to connect, share, and create.
Maximum number of participants: 15
Dates: Tuesday, July 21
Time: 5:00 PM Pacific
Cost: Donation
Ongoing Life Writing
This is the writing group that inspired canDID Expressions! We have been meeting every Sunday since the Healing Together conference in 2024. Openings are rare, but you can contact us to be included on the invitation list when a spot becomes available.
*Fee Structure and Accessibility
canDID Expressions believes that creative expression can transform lives, and that offerings should be accessible to everyone. To support this commitment while sustaining our operational costs, we use a sliding scale. This approach reflects our values of community, collective care, and shared responsibility by inviting those with greater financial capacity to help offset costs with limited access to income.
We trust you to thoughtfully consider your relationship to wealth and resources, both in the context of our community, and in the broader global context when selecting your rate. Your honesty and generosity help keep this work accessible to all.
If our lowest sliding scale rate still creates a barrier to participation, you are welcome to apply for a scholarship.
Cancellation Policy: If you are unable to attend an offering you’ve registered for, please contact us at least one week in advance to request a full refund, minus a 20% transaction fee.
Cancellations made at least three days in advance are eligible for a credit toward a future offering.
Past offerings
Paint It Out – Meaningful Life Experience
This workshop invites participants to explore a meaningful life experience through abstract painting. Guided exercises emphasize an intuitive process designed to help you create a visual expression of your chosen event. Our supportive, trauma-informed environment and thoughtfully sequenced activities help you discover personal meaning and a strong sense of coherence.
Writing Wrongs
When events or circumstances conflict with our values and beliefs, the impact can feel deeply personal. This workshop examines the institutional and systemic barriers that make it difficult to act in alignment with our integrity. Through a series of guided prompts that build on one another, you will explore new ways of enaging with these challenges. There will be time for individual writing, followed by optional sharing. You can choose to share your wrting, reflect on the process itself, identify discoveries, or voice questions that remain. The feedback offered will be intentionally simple, acknowledging that you have been heard and accepted.
Healing Through Movement
Join our creative movement class to deepen your mind-body connection in a supportive community. Led by Paola Patel, this experience invites participants to cultivate awareness of mind, body, and breath through gentle and intentional movement. Connection is nurtured using a variety of music, reflective journaling prompts, and group sharing.
Bilateral Art
Join this experiential class to discover how rhythmic, alternating, and two-handed art-making can support emotional regulation, self-awareness, and an increased sense of wholeness. Art prompts will be offered that focus on the process, not a final product. Time for reflection and sharing will be included. No art experience is needed to benefit from this practice.
Cut, Paste, Write: An Introduction to SoulCollage®
Join Kimberly Lee, JD for a two-hour, hands-on workshop. She will guide us through a gentle introduction to the enchanting practice of SoulCollage®. Using images, imagination, and intuition we’ll create collages representing our unique selves. With reflective journaling prompts, we’ll find meaning in our creations, accessing the inner wisdom that exists within us all.
Meet Your Part(s) Through Movement
Paola Patel leads this 4-week course in meeting your part(s) through creative and gentle movement. In each class, participants may be invited to bring awareness to mind, body, breath, and part(s) connection utilizing a variety of music, journaling prompts, and group sharing. The beginning stages of the course will focus on resourcing our part(s) to enhance trust within the creative movement space. This class will also cover somatic (body) exercises to promote grounding and ease by learning how to activate a calming nervous system state.
canDID Connections
This process-based art class is designed to facilitate connections between you and your inner world. You will need: paper, pen, and colored pencils. If you have fine liner pens and a larger tip marker, those will be helpful, but are not necessary. The use of lines and shapes makes this approach accessible to all.
Art and Writing
Kristin Schultz leads this 3-week class combining art and writing. In each session, participants will be guided to do some form of art: drawing, coloring, painting, oil pastels, (scribbling!), whatever they choose. Next, they will be guided to write about their creation or the process of creating. Participants will then be encouraged to share their experience, insights, and/or their art or writing. It is hoped that through this process of expression, reflection, and sharing that participants will connect with feelings and parts of themselves that can sometimes be difficult to access. All levels of art and writing are welcome. Come prepared with your choice of art supplies (which can be as basic as paper and pen).
Music in Writing
Tiffany Starkey leads this 4-week exploration of our relationship with music and how to apply it to the written word. When we write about music, we are the listeners. Participants will consider shared experiences with music-bands, albums, and songs. Topics include music genres, words, sounds, descriptions, and impact. Music backgrounds of all levels and types are welcome!
Dance Exploration
This is a 6-week exploration of embodied dance and movement. Participants will focus on building mind-body connections for mindfulness, emotional co-regulation, resilience, empowerment, and confidence. Topics include expression, creativity, senses, element, form, and production. Dance/movement backgrounds of all levels and types are welcome!