Getting Started
Digging In
Working with Linda Trichter Metcalf
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Exploring The Basics Of Proprioceptive Writing
A 6-week series of conference-calls in private consultation with a PW teacher. One hour weekly.
This series is for anyone wishing to establish, sustain, and deepen a Proprioceptive Writing (PW) practice. In The Basics you and your teacher explore elements of the Proprioceptive Method through the lens of your Writes. In response to your Writes, your PW teacher stimulates inquiry into your own thinking.
Students are encouraged to have 3-5 Writes each week. They email one or two Writes to their PW teacher weekly, followed 3 days later by a scheduled conference-call.
At least two rounds of Exploring the Basics are recommended before moving on to other work.
Register
Ongoing PW Coaching
A 6-week series of conference-calls in consultation with a PW teacher. Private or semi-private. One hour weekly.
In this 6-week series of conference-calls, a PW teacher works with you to help you maintain a successful PW practice.
Students are encouraged to have 3-5 Writes each week. They email one or two Writes weekly, followed 3 days later by a scheduled conference-call.
Register
Digging In
In each of the units listed below, (in turquoise), we’ll use Guided Writes to explore some ordinary assumptions about universal experience such as: being the child of a mother (or mother-substitute), being yourself, belonging to a sex-gender, having consciousness. Since personal experience can be organized within these categories, investigating their inherent assumptions can be eye opening. Outside material may be introduced into each unit.
Participants engage with the subjects through Guided Writes and in weekly Conference-calls with Linda Metcalf or PWC Faculty. Students are encouraged to have at least 3 Writes each week in our subject area, post all 3, and choose one for discussion during the conference call. Each unit takes place over six weekly sessions.
PLEASE NOTE:
The first unit, A Study of Writing The Mind Alive through Guides Writes, is required before moving on to other units in the series. If this unit is not currently being offered, and you need it in order to take another unit in this series, contact the PWC to arrange to take it privately with a PW teacher.
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A Study of Writing the Mind Alive through Guided Writes
This series takes place over 2 consecutive six-weeks units
Dates/Times TBA
In this class, we’ll learn about and practice using the Guided Write to explore key ideas in Writing the Mind Alive, the basic PW text co-authored by Linda Trichter Metcalf and Tobin Simon. Your teacher will discuss these ideas with the class and suggest topics for Writes. Together you’ll explore the thought behind the practice, as outlined, theorized, and illustrated in the book while experimenting with the form of the Guided Write in order to feel comfortable working with it. A Guided Write requires that you use the Proprioceptive Question (PQ) to hold your focus with light reins on a subject area you wish to investigate.
Because the material in each unit is engaged with through the Guided Write, this unit is required before moving onto other units in this series. If this unit is not currently being offered, and you need it in order to take another unit in this series, contact the PWC to arrange to take it privately with a PW teacher.
The Hearing Intelligence & the Many Speaking Voices
Dates/Times TBA
Mostly people conceive of understanding more in terms of “seeing” than of “hearing.” (Think of the phrase, “I see what you mean,” or the idea of “perspective” or “point of view.”) Experientially, however, the sense of sound is the one consciousness most resembles. Like sound, consciousness penetrates and resonates.
This unit explores the concepts of The Hearing Intelligence and The Many Speaking Voices, PW terms that signify thinking (including feelings and emotions) as a play of inner voices, which may be heard in imagination. These concepts provide a whole new way of approaching your inner life.
The Sense of Self & the Mother Dance
Dates/Times: TBA
In this unit, we investigate the relationship between the mother (or mother-substitute) and her daughter or son, given the patriarchal arrangement. We ask, What sets the sense of self in motion? Or, as D.W. Winnicott put it, “When does a self begin?” We model this sense on the communication system between mother and infant, as posited by Winnicott. We re-imagine Winnicott’s concept of the “good enough mother” as the Hearing Intelligence and explore personal experience from this shifted perspective
The Influence of Gender on Subjective Experience
Dates/Time TBA
It may seem obvious that sex/gender (like race, class, age, nationality, ethnicity…) influences your inner experience of yourself. Of the great social powers shaping your mind, gender is one of the most powerful. Yet coming face to face with this influence in your own Writes can be enlightening. In the company of a few key feminist thinkers, in this unit you look into your subjective experience of sex/gender and question some basic assumptions.
Proprioception: a New Model of Consciousness
Dates/Time TBA
Like the body, the mind operates according to certain rules, has built-in structures, so to speak, that maximize its operation. One such mental structure is an internal communication system by which the mind senses its own thoughts and feelings. If the mind’s internal communication system fails to operate, one may feel invisible or lost to oneself. This has been referred to as an identity crisis, a painful psychological condition sometimes lasting a lifetime. Whereas, when the mind’s internal communication system is doing its job, your sense of yourself develops and matures.
Digging In/Rounding Up
Dates/Time TBA
These six weeks are devoted to integrating the principal ideas we have grappled with over the last 5 units in the “Digging In” series. Each unit in the series has been concerned with the proprioceptive model of consciousness as well as influences on consciousness. Engaging with these ideas helps us think and speak about what PW is and how change occurs through this practice. This final unit will help you continue to clarify your thinking on this subject.
Working with Linda Trichter Metcalf
Conference Call Classes with Linda
Next series begins the week of August 7
This is an open class in which practitioners gain the benefits of a live PW teaching in a small gathering on the phone. In each session you read your Write and listen to others read theirs. Linda responds fully to each Write, engaging writers in discussion when useful.
The duration of the call, anywhere from 1-2 hours, depends upon the number of participants.
Those wishing to participate in conference call classes with Linda should have some experience with PW, having attended either an Immersion with Linda or classes with another PW Teacher, or having taken at least 1 round of Exploring the Basics.
Contact the PWC Before Registering
Register
Private PW Sessions with Linda
If you have had experience with Proprioceptive Writing and would like to explore a particular question or are searching for a deep & comprehensive reading of your Writes, Linda is available for private PW sessions.
In each session there is an in-depth consideration of the one or two Writes that you bring to the call.
For more information, contact: office@pwriting.org
