About Us
We inspire people to write and re-write their stories in order to know themselves better and set new directions for their lives and careers.
Tim's Story
I am a teacher with an interdisciplinary MA in adult education and organizational leadership with 20 years teaching experience in higher education. I enjoy sports, building and renovating, traveling and learning new things every day. I am adept in the kitchen (some would argue) and love to cook for family and friends from around the globe.
My journey to writing for wellbeing began as it has for many others that are reading this: as a way to deal with some of the challenges, obstacles, grief, trauma and opportunities that life had been placing on my path. We all experience these kinds of events, and in my case, it was the failure of my marriage, a toxic work environment, financial pressures and trying to juggle too many responsibilities at once.
I was fortunate to connect with Dr. Reinekke Lengelle amidst these struggles and learned about her research, work and practice in writing for wellbeing, and from that connection we have collaborated on expanding her ideas in a variety of dimensions, including the courses on this site.
Reinekke's Story
I am an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Athabasca University in Canada. I am a researcher in the area of narrative career development and writing for personal development. I design and teach courses in this area for both online and face to face offerings.
I have been teaching and developing this type of writing for 25 years and I am also a senior researcher with The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands.
I began my career as a playwright, poet, author of non-fiction, and ran a small publishing house called Black Tulip Press, and I am currently symposium co-editor with the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling and am part of an international group of scholars in the area of narrative and dialogical career guidance.
I created Career Writing with Dr. Frans Meijers (1950-2018). It is a narrative career learning approach which uses creative, expressive and reflective forms of writing to help people gain meaning and direction in life and work.
Most recently I have also developed and taught grief workshops for the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition where I am a faculty member. My 2021 book “Writing the Self in Bereavement” published by Routledge is the Winner of the Qualitative Inquiry Book Award 2022 and Winner of the Best Book “It’s a Way of Life” Award for Ethnography 2021
My latest book with co-editor Katrin den Elzen is entitled “Writing for wellbeing: research, theory, and practice” and will be out in 2023.
